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He Understands His Job — Do You Understand Him? 











WHAT SHALL WE 
DO ABOUT IT 

■« 

SEQUEL TO “PATTERN FOR SURVIVAL” 


BY ' 

EVERETT R. SMITH 

n 

Director of Research • Macfadden Publications, Inc. 



HD 

dejpt| & 


COPYRIGHT, 1944 

BY MACFADDEN PUBLICATIONS, INC. 

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, 
may be reproduced only with permission. 

Price $1.75 


©Cl A 1 8351 1 \ 

Printed in U. S. A. 
at 

TRI-ARTS PREj-S, ^NC., N. Y. 


EWte 

DC] 18 1944 

C QfZXLQffi csraa 


CONTENTS 


Chapter 


Page 

I. 

They Don’t Understand 

3 

II. 

Our Common Ground 

7 

III. 

They Ask Questions 

12 

IV. 

Good Companies, and Bad 

14 

V. 

Attitudes in ‘Your City’ 

16 

VI. 

Why They Look to Government 

21 

VII. 

What the Workers Want 

24 

VIII. 

They Want Information 

30 

IX. 

Some Things Not to Do 

35 

X. 

Some Things to Do 

42 

XI. 

Within the Plant 

47 

XII. 

Group Meetings 

56 

XIII. 

Listen to the Men 

60 

XIV. 

What Can the Foremen Do? 

64 

XV. 

The Community Job 

69 

XVI. 

The National Job 

75 

XVII. 

Interesting the Workers 

79 

XVIII. 

The Better Way 

83 

XIX. 

19 Specific Suggestions 

87 

XX. 

Call to Action 

119 


iii 















FOREWORD 


here is just as much truth today as there was nearly 170 years 



X ago in Benjamin Franklin’s famous caution, “We must all hang 
together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” 

If there are serious divisions and schisms between capital and labor 
we cannot achieve the goals of high level production and consumption 
and a satisfactory scale of living for the majority of us which we all 
agree are highly desirable. One of the greatest areas in which we 
must hang together is that of labor-industry relations. In this area, as 
pointed out in a previous book “Pattern for Survival,” there is more 
lack of understanding and cooperation than there is between the two 
major political parties. This in spite of the fact that some of industry 
has seriously undertaken the duty of trying to develop understanding. 

A large — too large — proportion of the workers believe that capital 
is a profiteer, that it makes two or three dollars net profit for every 
dollar paid out in wages. They believe there is a great deal of graft 
on the part of management as well as on the part of capital itself. 
Particularly do they believe that the graft on the part of management 
and capital has been notorious in connection with war contracts and 
the cost-plus system. They believe that the intent of capital and man¬ 
agement generally is to exploit labor, to treat it as a commodity to be 
used at a profit and discard it. They feel there is a lack of interest in 
human relations and understanding. 

Labor would like to feel that it is a part of the enterprise but 
claims that management will not take them into its confidence — that 
it does not give them information or understanding. They feel they 
are too remote from management and that there are too many ‘in- 


v 


between fellows’ who act like little czars and exploit the workers. 

These are but a few of the beliefs in the minds of a very large part 
of the wage earners in America. They say that they have had nothing 
shown them to indicate that those beliefs are wrong. They would like 
understanding, but they say that capital does not understand and is 
not even interested in trying to understand them. 

If the ideas and programs of enlightened and progressive industry 
are right, and the writer believes that most of them are, it is impossible 
to convey an acceptance as well as an understanding of those ideas 
to labor if there is no common ground of understanding. It is like 
an American missionary trying to convert the heathen in the South 
Sea Islands when neither one has the slightest understanding of the 
other’s language, customs, and background. 

Having pointed out some of the serious problems which must be 
bridged if our American system of freedom in enterprise and com¬ 
petition and progress is to continue, numerous top men in industry 
and management have asked me how specifically can we solve these 
problems, what shall we do about them. The general areas in which 
this work must be done have been suggested, but they have asked for 
specific programs. 

They have expressed the belief that our special activities have 
given us a better knowledge of the points of view and attitudes of 
the workers than is possessed perhaps by most others who are sym¬ 
pathetic to the aims of management. 

For the interest and activities of Macfadden Publications have 
brought those of us who are associated with that company closer to 
the wage earners, and to an understanding of them, and far closer 
than most organizations whether in manufacturing, publishing or 
public relations. For, twenty-five years ago the first magazine edited 
to the families of wage earners was one published by this company; 
and today its magazines, editorially directed basically to the wage 
earners and their interests, reach more of the wage earners than do 


vi 


those of any other publisher. Both cause and result are that we know 
the wage earners intimately and study them constantly. The success 
of this specialized publishing operation is evidence diat we do under¬ 
stand them and know how to reach them. We may say without hesi¬ 
tation that the work which we have been doing here during the past 
years in editorial studies and in studies of labor attitudes and labor 
relations can merit confidence in our interpretations of the thinking, 
feelings and attitudes of the workers. 

From talks with wage earners in various cities throughout the 
country, there have come information, comments and ideas which 
seem impossible for management or the representatives of manage¬ 
ment to get from the workers in their own companies. 

And in more recent talks with wage earners we have endeavored 
to draw them out still more as to their own ideas as to what is missing 
in industry-labor relations. 

That it may be of some aid in solving the problems ahead of us 
and to answer the questions put up to me by heads of industry, this 
book has been written. 

Naturally, it is impossible to cover every activity and every step 
which can be taken by management toward the creation of better 
understanding between itself and the wage earners. Conditions and 
situations differ from company to company and from area to area. 
Every company must work out its own individual problems in rela¬ 
tion to its own personnel. 

There are, however, certain basic and fundamental procedures 
which can be used to meet the basic and general problems which 
exist in this field. 

This book will present the basic facts of what the workers really 
think. Some facets of these attitudes are newly developed from recent 
discussions with the workers in their homes. 

The opportunity to observe the activities and operations in worker- 
management relations in several companies has made it possible to 

vii 


present here a list of the things which should not be done and the 
methods which should not be used. These don ts have been de¬ 
veloped from studies of both sides of the question, the workers’ and 
managements’. 

And finally, there will be presented basic recommendations in 
regard to three areas of essential activity on this vital question of 
giving understanding to the workers. Industry has undertaken various 
activities on this problem in some of its major associations and other 
groups. Some work has been done very constructively in specific 
communities. In the case of many companies management is definitely 
endeavoring to meet this problem. 

It is not the intent or purpose of this book to suggest ways and 
means of dealing with the designated representatives of labor. This 
volume deals with the methods of giving understanding to, and gain¬ 
ing the confidence of, the individuals who together make up what is 
called labor. 

A continuance of the lack of confidence which now exists on the 
part of so many of the wage earners can result only in disaster for the 
system of private enterprise. If that lack of confidence is allowed to 
continue and grow, the workers will demand that industry and 
business be controlled — probably by government. 

For the encouragement and cooperation given me in this work I 
want to pay tribute and express my appreciation to my associates at 
Macfadden Publications, Inc.; to a considerable number of forward- 
looking men in industry, management, and public relations; and 
above all to the great number of the workers who have made it pos¬ 
sible for me to express in this book their viewpoints and to contribute 
our part toward that better understanding which they so earnestly 
desire. 

E.R.S. 

New York, 

July 1 , 1944 . 

viii 


WHAT SHALL WE 
DO ABOUT IT 



THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND 


T\. few weeks ago in a mid-western industrial city a worker in 
one of the factories said, “I don’t want to have to fight and go 
on strike and all that — it don’t get you no place and it happens 
that way just because the big money bosses and the laborers 
don’t even try to understand each other.” 

Some days later in the same city another thoughtful worker 
brought up the same subject and made this comment on it, 
“These big companies have big research laboratories. They 
couldn’t get along without them. The research is to develop 
products. You don’t know of any production plants, do you, 
that have a research laboratory for studying the men and women 
who work?” 

These comments and others reported in later chapters are rep¬ 
resentative of the attitudes and opinions of the majority of the 
workers in most cities. They indicate a very strong feeling on the 
part of labor that management is not interested in them. 

There are many companies who have developed and are en¬ 
deavoring to carry out plans for conveying information to their 
workers. Why are not these plans more resultful? 

Let us be extreme. Let us visualize the destruction of every 
piece of machinery and equipment in the factories, but so long 
as we still have skilled and trained men that machinery and 
equipment can be replaced. On the other hand, let us imagine 
the factory beautifully equipped with the finest machinery in 
the world but all of the men destroyed. Can the machinery 
re-create men or will it run itself? 

It is hardly necessary to argue that men are more important 
than machinery. It is hardly necessary to bring up the point 
that so long as machinery is well oiled and cared for it will 


4 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


run. It has no feelings. But men need something more than 
food and a place to sleep. There is the human mind to be 
taken into consideration. 

The average worker, the great majority of workers, do not 
work solely for the amount of money they take home in the 
pay envelope and the things which that will buy for them. They 
want to feel that they are contributing ‘value plus’ for the 
money they receive. Many people will dispute that; many men 
in management will deny it. But it is absolutely true of the 
great majority of American workers. They want to feel the 
satisfaction of a job well done, and work done that is worthwhile. 

The criticism which has been voiced so widely by factory 
workers in many cities is their feeling that the company gives 
more consideration to the machines than it does to the men. 

The engineering department knows all there is to know about 
the qualities and strength of metals. They know that two pieces 
of steel of identical quality and composition will stand the same 
strains and stresses and react always the same. So the engineer¬ 
ing department can proceed in its plans on the basis of that 
knowledge. 

But too many of the plans for labor relations have every 
evidence of having been designed on the drafting board in the 
engineering department. 

In many of these there is so evident a lack of understanding 
of the point of view and interests of the working men that the 
ideas, which may be excellent in themselves, fail completely 
to get across. 

The workers have told again and again that they believe 
management does not give the consideration to the human ele¬ 
ment which it does to other factors of the business. The workers 
generally feel that management does not understand them and 
doesn’t try to understand them. Consequently, they feel remote 


THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND 


5 

from the business and have little interest in it beyond their 
day’s pay. 

Why is it important that management understand the work¬ 
ers? Of course, there are many obvious reasons, but let us look at 
some of them. 

Management has expressed surprise at the ideas advanced by 
some of the workers. For example, the factory workers rather 
generally believe that the company is making two or three dol¬ 
lars in net profits after taxes for every dollar paid out in wages. 
Management states that that is completely untrue. Manage¬ 
ment knows that that is not the fact. 

But in developing understanding between management and 
labor the facts as management knows them are not of any im¬ 
portance whatever. What is important is what the men think 
are the facts and why they think so. 

Do the men want to know the facts? There is no question that 
the average factory worker does want to know the facts. That 
calls for an understanding of what sort of facts he wants to 
know. 

If industry is to do this important job they must understand 
not only what the men think, but why they think as they do. 

The next point is — what can be done about it, and quite as 
important, what not to do and methods not to be used? 

Progressive management wants to give understanding to the 
men in the factories. But all too often management itself does 
not have understanding. Why should the men be expected to 
understand the problems and viewpoints of management, if 
management has not taken the trouble to understand the view¬ 
points and problems of the men? 

Right attitudes and understanding can never be created unless 
the facts and conditions bear them out. Unless top management 
definitely and sincerely feels a desire to develop mutual under- 


6 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


standing with the workers, any attempts in this direction are 
artificial and will not be successful. 

The first job of management is to make sure that its own 
house is in order, mentally and physically. The job starts in the 
minds, yes and in the hearts of management. Sounds utopian? 
No, it is just plain business sense. If you are not willing to 
give the workers credit for decency of attitudes and of inten¬ 
tion, don’t try to fool them about your feelings — you can’t do 
it. Management must carefully weigh its policies to be sure 
that it is not indulging in practices which are basically belliger¬ 
ent or antipathetic to the workers, and must make sure that 
such practices are not being carried on by the in-between fellows, 
superintendents, the managers, the supervisors, the foremen. 
The first job which management has is to be sure that it is right 
— it can then carry out the suggestions made in this book and 
secure that understanding and cooperation with its workers 
which is so important to every company, to every community 
and to the nation. 

In the succeeding chapters it is hoped to set up some helpful 
guideposts along this road. 


II 

OUR COMMON GROUND 


The activities for mutual understanding with the workers can 
be predicated upon this fact: basically, the workers believe in the 
same sort of things in which industry basically believes. 

They talk a lot about security. What they actually want in 
the term security are things which we all want. We can lay aside 
such things as old age insurance, unemployment insurance, and 
other factors which come within the province of government, 
state or national; aside from those, these are the things they 
mean by security and the things they want. 

They want opportunity to improve themselves and their 
situation and the situation of their families. They want an 
opportunity to advance within the area of their interests and 
capabilities, within the kind of jobs which they can do. Within 
that area they want the opportunity to get better jobs if they 
are fitted or can fit themselves to hold them. And above all, 
they want to feel that there is ahead of them an opportunity to 
improve the standards of living of themselves and their families. 

These are merely the basic things which have been greeted 
everywhere with acclaim, whether expressed by the spokesman 
of industry or by the spokesman of the United Nations. 

Labor and industry are both fundamentally seeking the same 
goals. We recognize that on both sides there are those who have 
other and reactionary or revolutionary ideas. But the great 
majority of labor is neither reactionary nor revolutionary. 

The difficulty is that neither labor nor industry believes the 
other. The trouble is distrust. Does industry deserve the trust 
of labor? 

Mutual trust can come only from understanding. Industry 
must give understanding; but, first of all, industry must have it. 


7 


8 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


If there is to be agreement and cooperation, the task which 
faces industry has well been expressed by President Wriston 
of Brown University in his recent book, “Challenge to Free¬ 
dom” — “We must understand the other fellow’s point of view 
— and go as far as possible to meet it.” 

The statement is frequently made that the heads of industry 
and of management do understand the workers. It is pointed 
out that a great proportion of the heads of large companies had 
themselves been workers and have come up through the ranks. 

There are outstanding and exceptional examples of such men 
who do still understand the workers. 

Today, however, a considerable proportion of the top men 
in management have not come up from the ranks. They have 
come from engineering, from accounting, from the law. They 
have not had experience themselves as workers at the machine 
or the bench. 

Among those who have come up from the ranks there has 
grown a great gulf between them and possible understanding 
of the workers. Conditions and attitudes have changed greatly 
from the days — twenty, twenty-five or thirty years ago — when 
the big boss was himself a workman. Things are not like they 
were then. Attitudes and viewpoints of the workers are not 
like they were then. The boss’ fine and hallowed memories of 
those days have no reality in relation to the conditions and 
attitudes existing today. Beside that, the boss has for years been 
of necessity so preoccupied with the other problems of manage¬ 
ment, finance, supplies, selling, capital, all of those other major 
problems of top business-management, that he has not had the 
time or the opportunity to keep in touch with the changing 
conditions and attitudes among the workers. He has had no 
time to talk with them or even to observe them closely and 
carefully. 


OUR COMMON GROUND 


9 


In the instances where the boss himself was once upon a time 
a worker in the ranks he often has no better understanding of 
the situations that exist today than does the other type of boss. 
In fact, he may be more wrong. 

If the heads of industry can understand exactly what are the 
wants and desires in the minds of the workers, they then have a 
starting point from which they can present to the workers their 
purposes and methods in the light of what the workers want. 
Only if presented in that way can the ideas of industry get over 
to the workers. Presented otherwise, the workers are not inter¬ 
ested. 

Some of the things which are in the worker’s mind when he 
talks of security are these — 

Security in his job. By this the worker does not mean neces¬ 
sarily or even usually that he wants any kind of a guarantee that 
he is going to have fifty or fifty-two weeks work a year every year 
in perpetuity. He does want assurance that so long as he does 
his job capably, faithfully and well he will not be tossed out of 
that job because of any capricious whim of a foreman or super¬ 
visor, or in case of changes in operation and production without 
a reasonable notice. The executives of the business have some 
general ideas of the trend in the immediate future and the prob¬ 
abilities of extent of employment. With no desire whatever to 
know the details of the business, the worker would like and feels 
entitled to have something of that same anticipatory knowledge. 

Jobs after the war. This is a subject on which all of the work¬ 
ers are articulate in their desire for information. They realize 
and admit that the company cannot give them absolute guar¬ 
antees, but they would like to know and they feel entitled to 
know whether the company plans at the conclusion of war pro¬ 
duction to shut up shop and live on accumulated profits, or 
whether the company is making plans for continuing the busi- 


io 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


ness. All they want to know is what the company anticipates and 
is planning for in relation to the overall picture of jobs. Can 
they have with that information reasonable assurance that there 
will be a job for them in the plant where they are now working 
or must they expect to be turned adrift? 

In a recent article by Burton Bigelow, who has done very con¬ 
structive work on post-war planning, he states: “Employees, in 
many cases, are as much interested in post-war planning as are 
their employers. And the National Association of Manufac¬ 
turers’ survey showed that workers want business to start its post¬ 
war planning now. Wise employers, therefore, are announcing 
to their employees that their company is starting, or is engaged 
in, post-war planning. Details are not needed — and probably 
wouldn’t be read or understood, but employees do like to see the 
company’s post-war planning objectives in print, especially 
when they include objectives in which the employees have a 
common interest.” 

Many of the men feel that the company is planning to keep 
and even to hire more women after the war, getting them at lower 
wages and firing the men. If that is not the policy or plan of the 
company they would be very glad to be told. 

These are a few of the basic and broad questions which are in 
the mind of practically every worker today. They are not unrea¬ 
sonable and in most cases should be answered. 

It is evident from these discussions and comments by the wage 
earners that there is not only lack of certainty but a great deal of 
confusion as to what is going to happen in the days to come. 

It is just as true that industry has no certainty as to the future, 
although business executives probably have more specific and 
concrete ideas of what is to come than do the workers in the 
plants. This comes, if for no other reason, from the fact that the 
executives are naturally better informed. 


OUR COMMON GROUND 


11 

But the workers do not expect that someone can give absolute 
and complete assurance of the future nor do they want that. 

These men believe in a free America and in opportunity for 
each of them. They want the opportunity to go from one job to 
a better job and they realize that with such opportunities goes a 
certain measure of risk. 

The assurance which they do want from industry is that indus¬ 
try is definitely planning, working, and striving for the main¬ 
tenance of high levels of employment. If they can have some 
assurance that business generally, and their company in partic¬ 
ular, is working steadily and soundly toward an expanding and 
better future for their business that is what they would like to 
know. But, as has been pointed out, they want to feel as good 
Americans that they are and can be part of that planning and 
development of a better future. 

As matters stand today most of these men feel that any plan¬ 
ning on the part of management is remote from them and unin¬ 
terested in them. That it is purely a planning for management’s 
own interest and profits. If management can make clear to them 
that these plans of necessity involve not only the front office but 
the shop and all the men in the shop, then these men will be more 
willing to stick by, cooperate, and take the risks along with man¬ 
agement. 


Ill 

THEY ASK QUESTIONS 


But as to the subject of ‘free enterprise,’ if we must use that 
term, what does that mean to the wage earner? 

Is it true that the company makes two or three dollars or more 
net profit after taxes for every dollar paid out in wages? If that 
is so, he doesn’t like free enterprise. 

Is it true that the companies have made so much money that 
they are not at all interested in what happens after the war con¬ 
tracts are cancelled? 

Is it true that it is to the advantage of the company to hire more 
men than they need so that they could charge extra profits to the 
government? 

Is it true that the company has profited by buying more mate¬ 
rials and machinery than they need and letting them go to waste? 

Is it true that the personnel men or others in the company are 
trained to becloud and confuse the issue rather than being fair 
and liberal in dealings with the men when they have complaints? 

Many of the workers in city after city have complained of the 
fact that their problems, suggestions, and criticisms have been 
met by management on the ground of legal technicalities rather 
than on the basis of seeking a mutual understanding and agree¬ 
ment. They claim that the company attorneys study contracts 
and agreements and labor and wage laws solely from the stand¬ 
point of finding ways and means of avoiding doing or permit¬ 
ting those things which the workers feel are justified. 

It is indeed too often true that in dealing with worker-man¬ 
agement relations “the Law is an ass.” 

On the other hand, one of the most progressive and success¬ 
ful men in charge of labor relations and public relations in one 
of our great companies is a trained lawyer. He sees the much 


2 


THEY ASK QUESTIONS 1 $ 

greater problem of human relations and of industry’s future 
problems, rather than the immediate technicalities. 

In brief, legalistic minds have no place in labor relations. 

Some other things which the workers want to know are these: 

Are they getting a fair share of the product (profit) of their 
labors? 

What is the truth about profits? 

What information can they have about profits and dividends? 

What is the actual total of wages, not of ‘wages and salaries’? 

What about other costs that go into production? 

What is the truth about the withholding tax and does the 
company get any of it? 

Does the company pay anything toward social security and if 
so, how much? 

How much of what the workers pay for social security sticks 
to the company or the fingers of its executives? 

What information can they have about the company’s operation 
so they will feel that they know where the business is going? 

What information can they have about post-war plans? 

With increased production per man hour such as developed 
by new methods and new machinery, what is the prospect of jobs 
in the future? 

Will there be fewer men employed? 

What is the situation in that regard in their own company? 

Are the companies going to hire women in place of men after 
the war? 

These are some of the things on which there are questions 
in the minds of the workers. More important, they are often not 
mere questions, but represent definite opinions. 

As has been stated, the important thing is not necessarily 
what are the facts but what the workers think are the facts. Those 
opinions are the basis of the extensive bitterness against capital. 


IV 

GOOD COMPANIES, AND BAD 

"Where the company does give the workers information on 
some of these points the good effect is noticeable. 

Recently we were invited to make an intensive study of a 
medium-sized, mid-western industrial city; with no prior 
knowledge as to which of the companies, if any, were trying to 
give information and understanding to their employees and 
which were not. 

We kept away from the companies and their executives and 
their plants; talked with men who worked in the factories. They 
were not men whose names were given by the factories or their 
personnel department. They were a random sampling of the 
workers, visited at their homes. 

And very quickly it was clear which of the plants were doing or 
trying to do a good job on labor relations and which were not. 
In two of the plants in this city, there is a very high degree of 
loyalty on the part of the workers. In two others the extreme 
contrary was true. 

In the latter two the situation, as it was seen by all of those 
with whom we talked, was well expressed by one of them who 
said, “The company never tells us anything anyway and never 
would until after it has happened.” 

Against this sour, bitter attitude in these plants, there was 
found an attitude of considerable confidence in certain others. 
In the case of one of these others every one of the workers with 
whom we talked told in detail of his company’s plans for getting 
back into production of consumer goods and for increasing their 
sales and production (and jobs) above the pre-war level. These 
men felt confident that there would be jobs for them after the 
war, or at the very least that their company was doing everything 


14 


GOOD COMPANIES, AND BAD 1 5 

in its power to see that there should be jobs for them. These men 
were not only loyal, but proud of their company. 

One of the men who works in this company brought up the 
subject of company profits on war work. That is not unusual, 
for nearly every man brings up that subject. But the unusual 
thing was the way in which this man brought it up and the at¬ 
titude he expressed. He said he hoped that his company was mak¬ 
ing a tremendous profit because they would need it for recon¬ 
version, to pay for supplies, materials and wages in producing 
consumer goods until the money began to flow back from their 
sales. 

Another man in the same plant said this, “I am satisfied with 
what I earn and satisfied for the company to earn all they can. 
I have heard men yelling about ‘cost-plus’. What in the world are 
they kicking for when I know for a fact that the electric bill out 
there at our plant for one month was $105,000?” 

This is the type of contrast found not only in that city but in 
others, between the men who work in plants where the manage¬ 
ment is endeavoring to give them some information and those 
who work in plants where the management does not. 


V 

ATTITUDES IX 'YOUR CITY’ 


In talks with wage earners in various cities throughout the 
country there have developed information, comments and ideas 
which are usually difficult or impossible for management, or the 
representatives of management to get from the workers in their 
companies. 

Public opinion polls do not, of course, develop this type of 
vital information. For they ask specific questions framed at a 
central point. To these, specific answers must be given, and the 
respondent often endeavors to give such an answer regardless 
of the degree to which he has or has not thought out or considered 
the problem. 

Abstract questions bring little that is helpful or sound. The¬ 
oretical questions are dangerous. For it has long been realized 
by those who are most experienced in dealing with and influenc¬ 
ing the wage earners that self-identification is the key to real 
information from them. Any question which poses a situation 
or condition in which the worker does not instantly visualize 
himself in terms of his own realities will never get an answer of 
any value. 

But when the wage earner is talking freely about his own 
situation and problems, the conditions in the plant where he 
works and what he thinks about his own company, he is giving 
a true picture of his real ideas and opinions. 

Such visits run from one to two hours or more. No specific 
questions are asked. Nor is the worker embarrassed by notes 
being made as he talks. He knows exactly who the visitor is and 
why he is there, and so talks freely. The worker then brings up 
points, ideas and criticisms which are often as new and surprising 
to the interviewer as they prove to be to the heads of the com- 


16 


ATTITUDES IN ‘YOUR CITY’ 


17 


panies by whom these men are employed. 

In recent talks with wage earners we have endeavored to 
draw them out still more as to what is missing in industry-worker 
relations. 

Attitudes of the wage earners toward industry have not 
changed materially during the past year except to sharpen up in 
certain directions. Currently they are beginning to think more 
than they did last year about the cancellation of war contracts 
and the implications involved therein. They are more acutely 
concerned with the prospects of post-war employment, particu¬ 
larly in relation to the factories where they are now working. 

Our most recent study of workers’ attitudes was conducted in 
a medium sized industrial city in the Midwest. It is a typical 
manufacturing community of between 100,000 and 200,000 pop¬ 
ulation. It has for years been primarily a manufacturing town. 
Currently, most of its factories are engaged entirely or almost 
entirely on government contracts for war materials or supplies 
of one kind or another. There has been a considerable increase 
in population, accompanying a very large increase in the num¬ 
ber of factory workers. 

Compositions and types of the factory employees are not par¬ 
ticularly different from those in other cities which we have stud¬ 
ied. They include people who have lived in that city for many 
years and others who have come there to take jobs in the war 
plants. Some have come from the neighboring countryside, some 
from other cities and some from distant points. Some have had 
years of factory work and others are new to it. 

The workers in this city raise essentially the same questions 
and make the same criticisms that have been brought up by those 
in other cities. 

Most of them feel that the companies are making tremendous 
profits. They quite commonly believe that for every dollar paid 


i8 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


out in wages the company makes one, or two, or three dollars in 
clear profit. 

They believe that the company is not interested in the work¬ 
ers except for what they can get out of them. As one of these men 
put it “Industry, capital or big business haven’t shown in the past 
that they give a tinker’s damn what happens to the laboring man.” 

Here is the attitude of many workers as expressed by one man, 
who incidentally works in one of the ‘absentee-owned’ plants of 
which the employees are generally so critical. “There is too much 
selfishness and self-interest — everyone is out for themselves. 
There is not enough cooperation. The American people are all 
right if they have the right information, but everybody — the 
heads of business and ourselves too — is too much concerned with 
their own interests.” 

Another man working in the same plant said, “the company 
hates the Union and won’t work with it, so there’s no coopera¬ 
tion, no feeling for the men.” 

A worker in one of the very big plants in that city said that he 
“feels the company and the men ought to work together.” He 
deplored the lack of understanding. 

As in other cities, the men feel that the companies are making 
so much money that they are not concerned about the post-war 
period. They feel the companies have such large profits piled 
away that they have all the money they want and don’t care what 
happens; that they are entirely callous in their feeling toward the 
men. 

One of the reasons why the men think the companies are 
making so much money is quite evidently because of what they 
have heard about ‘cost-plus’ contracts. That point was brought up 
by a good many of the men in that city and their attitude toward 
it is indicated by what was told by one of them. He said, “the 
rumor went around that ‘cost-plus’ was discontinued around 


ATTITUDES IN ‘YOUR CITY* 


19 

December 1. I wouldn’t know, but I have seen production 
stepped up since that time.” 

They all have the feeling that under ‘cost-plus’ the companies 
profited by employing more help than was needed, by buying 
more materials and machinery and wasting them. 

These men — the workers in the factories — do not like waste, 
whether it is waste of manpower or materials. In most of them 
there is nothing whatever of the saboteur. They resent it when 
they see men standing around in idleness. They do not, they said 
emphatically, resent the fact that they are working hard; but 
they resent the fact that someone else is loafing and that the com¬ 
pany is paying him good money for doing it. Now it may be they 
do not understand why that man seems to be loafing. Which, of 
course, brings us right back to the point of understanding, and 
that (again) leads to the matter of foremen. 

Said one of the workers, “There are lots of rumors and gossip 
— the men are worried about post-war, about jobs, about rates 
of pay. No one has any idea what the company intends to do. All 
is a deep dark mystery. The company never tells the men any¬ 
thing, so the men guess and start rumors.” And this man further 
came through with a constructive suggestion. He said, “the com¬ 
pany ought to tell the foremen, and let them be the source of 
information for the men and build up morale. That’s the fore¬ 
man’s job.” 

The men feel remote from management and generally they 
don’t feel that the foremen are a connecting link, but rather a 
separating mechanism. Quite properly they look on foremen 
as part of management, but at the same time they feel that the 
foremen should have an interest in them, the workers, as indi¬ 
viduals and as people. 

Many criticized some of the younger foremen for not being 
considerate and not having understanding. The men do not like 


20 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


foremen whom they cannot respect, and they do not respect fore¬ 
men who do not know how to handle men. 

The feeling on the part of some of the men is that the fore¬ 
men would like to ride them and try to, and their only protec¬ 
tion is the fact that the union will not stand for it. 

On the other hand, some workmen commented to the effect 
that the foremen are in a hard spot - that they have to carry out 
the orders of the company and at the same time keep the good 
will of the men. Yet even one of those who most effectively ex¬ 
pressed this thought went on to say that, “of course, some of the 
foremen were selected in a hurry and are not very capable, 
whereas if the company had waited a little bit they might have 
gotten a really capable man in that job.” 

These comments about foremen indicate the feeling on the 
part of the men that the companies are not even trying to give 
them information or to communicate with them, since the com¬ 
panies do not use the obvious channel for so doing, that is, the 
foremen. 


VI 

WHY THEY LOOK TO GOVERNMENT 


JDack of all this runs the thread of feeling on the part of the 
men that the companies are not interested in them, do not care 
about them, and make no effort to give that kind of information 
which would arouse in the men confidence in and loyalty to 
their companies. 

Since those things are not done to create loyalty to the com¬ 
panies, where do the men’s loyalties tend to go? That was again 
revealed in the talks with the men in this midwestern city, and 
confirmed what workers in other cities had said as well. 

There are two sources to which they look. 

First was the feeling of the absolute necessity of unions. They 
feel that the unions protect them, and told of many instances 
where they believe that the union had protected them in regard 
to working conditions and operations. They also felt that the 
union in many cases was responsible for a better rate of pay than 
they would have received otherwise. But most significant, per¬ 
haps, was the very general feeling that the unions will be essen¬ 
tial after the war contracts are over, to prevent the companies 
from cutting the basic hourly rates of pay. 

In the city mentioned, this opinion is general even in plants 
which are not unionized. The same opinions were expressed by 
workers in those plants, some of whom were union members and 
some of whom were not. They all had the feeling that probably 
they would have to look to the unions for protection after the 
war is over. 

The second direction in which many of these men are look¬ 
ing for protection is government. Quite generally they expressed 
the thought that the government will have to play a part in the 
post-war picture, setting up rules and regulations in regard to 


21 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


22 

old age benefits, pensions, unemployment compensation and 
things of that sort. But beyond that, they feel that to protect the 
workers, government will have to establish tight controls over 
business, industry, capital. 

At the same time many of those who spoke about government 
controls and operation did not express themselves very compli- 
mentarily toward government handling of such matters. They 
spoke of the fact that where the government controls the job, 
men work more slowly and do not put in as much effort. The 
general feeling was that the government may have to take control 
of conditions after the war, but many of the men rather hope 
not. Some of them said that they felt there was an understanding 
between industry and the government that when the war is over 
the government will take hands off. At the same time, one man 
commented that so much of the machinery, equipment and 
material in the plant belong to the U. S. Government that it 
would just about take an act of Congress to get it out. That 
expressed the feeling of some of the men that there would be 
undue delays in reconversion because the government would be 
so slow in clearing things out. 

But the men look to their unions and to government because 
they feel that it is futile to look to the company for under¬ 
standing. 

The feeling is widespread in this particular city, as in others, 
that the workers in the plants would like somehow or other to 
get together with management. They feel that it is management s 
fault that they cannot get together, cannot understand each 
other, cannot see eye to eye. They blame management for the 
fact that foremen do not give them information and under¬ 
standing and do not deal with them successfully. 

Let us quote an electrician in one of the big plants, “It s the 
big guys higher up who are making all the money and they are 


WHY THEY LOOK TO GOVERNMENT 


23 


interested in us just as long as we work. That’s because every¬ 
thing is on such a big scale. Plants don’t employ in the hundreds 
— it’s in the thousands. If they could be split up some way, then 
you’d have a better chance of getting laborers and white collar 
men together.” 

The report of the study in this particular city reiterates and 
emphasizes what has been found in other cities. 

The workers feel that they are open minded and that it may be 
that some of their ideas are wrong. But, they ask, how can they 
have correct ideas if they get no information from management? 

In the cases where management does want to and tries to give 
information to the men they are so often not successful. Man¬ 
agement complains that the men fail to understand that infor¬ 
mation, are skeptical of it, don’t believe it. The men say that that 
is the fault of management. 

How can the men be expected to understand management 
and its viewpoints and aims and objectives, if management does 
not thoroughly understand the viewpoints of the workers? 


VII 

WHAT THE WORKERS WANT 


The men have said that they want to know. They have told 
very definitely some of the things they would like to know. 

In regard to many matters they have expressed their criticisms 
outspokenly and frankly. At the same time many of them have 
said that perhaps they are wrong in those criticisms; but if they 
are wrong it is because they have never been given the facts. 
They have never been told management’s side of the case. So 
let us analyze the things that they want to know. 

They would like to feel that they are getting a reasonable 
share of the product of their labors. As matters stand today most 
of them feel that the companies or, as they call it, capital is get¬ 
ting the lion’s share of the profits and giving to the workers only 
the minimum that they are forced to give up. 

They would like to know the truth about the profits of the 
company for which they work. They see statements that their 
company has made profits in the hundreds of thousands or even 
in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Those are tremendous 
sums. The worker naturally compares that with his ten, fifteen, 
or even twenty dollars a day. He believes that capital is profiteer¬ 
ing on him. The reason for that belief is that he has not been in¬ 
formed and does not know. He has received information in his 
union newspaper and elsewhere which pointed out the tremen¬ 
dous profits made by many companies and perhaps the very 
company for which he works. He has seen nothing to inform 
him as to what those profits mean. 

Who are the people who get the profits? His impression is 
that the men who run the business get most of it. He has not 
been told to whom the profits go, who are the stockholders. He 
has not been told how the money which he invests in life insur- 


24 


WHAT THE WORKERS WANT 


25 


ance or puts in the savings bank goes into the capital structure of 
industry. He does not know to whom the profits and dividends 
of the company are paid. If he were told that, he might have a 
different attitude. 

His impression is that the amount of money paid out in wages 
is a very small part of the total cash receipts of the company. He 
feels that after the necessary expenditures for materials and 
things of that sort, most of the money goes into the pockets of 
the big bosses. If it is true that payments in wages take the big¬ 
gest share of the company’s money after paying for raw materials, 
etc., he would like to know the facts. By that he means the facts in 
relation to his own specific individual company. He is not 
interested in broad generalizations. 

Maybe there are other things which take a lot of the money 
that comes into the company’s hands. In most cases, nobody has 
ever taken the trouble to tell him about that. In the few instances 
where he has been told, he gets a very different picture, and his 
attitude toward the company and its financial operations is quite 
changed. 

The withholding tax bothers him. A good many of the men 
think that the company or the company officials get a rake-off 
on that. 

The average worker believes that social security and old age 
pensions are paid for entirely by himself and his fellows. He does 
not know that the company pays as much or more for his benefit. 
Why don’t they tell him, says he. 

Why is the company doing all that big advertising? Doesn’t 
that take an awful lot of money, some of which might go into his 
pay envelope? 

How about some of these other expensive things the company 
does? Isn’t that taking money right out of his pocket? 

Is the company doing anything about planning for the post- 


26 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


war? As far as he knows, they are not interested, are not doing 
anything about it. They are making terrific profits today and 
not worrying. That means, of course, that he will be out of a job 
as soon as the war contracts are finished, and that the company 
is completely indifferent as to what happens to him. 

But if the company is making some plans about the post-war, 
why don’t they tell him about it? Why don’t they let him feel 
that the company is really concerned about doing a big or even 
bigger business after the war, and making jobs for him and the 
other fellows? 

After all, a lot of people have put only money into the com¬ 
pany, while he is putting in his best days and years. Hasn’t he 
just as big a stake, or a bigger one in the future of the company 
than the money fellows? 

Those are some of his broad questions, the things he would 
like to know, the things he criticizes in regard to the general 
operations of the company. How about the company telling him 
some of these things so that he may feel that the big boys recog¬ 
nize that he, too, is a part, and an important part, of the company. 

If something of that were done he would feel a little more 
secure about his job. He feels little or no security about it now, no 
matter how well he may try to perform his work. He would like 
to have from the company some reasonable assurance that if he 
does his work well and faithfully there will be a reasonable de¬ 
gree of job security, barring of course conditions beyond the con¬ 
trol of the company. 

And if the company must fire him he sees no reason why he 
should not have a little advance notice. No wonder resentment 
against the company builds up when he comes in some morning 
and finds a notice on the bulletin board that he is fired that 
night, that his department is being shut down. He objects to 
being tossed out like a piece of waste. 


WHAT THE WORKERS WANT 


27 

If there is some reason why he cannot be given advance notice, 
why doesn’t the company tell him? Why don’t they explain it to 
him? Certainly he will be more reasonable toward an explana¬ 
tion than toward a lack of one. 

Similarly, in regard to changes in operation and setup, of 
course he gets his orders from the boss, but why doesn’t the boss 
tell him a little something of the reasons? He would, he says, 
be a lot more enthusiastic and cooperative if somebody bothered 
to tell him why. 

What are the new and improved machines and technologies 
going to mean to him and his job? The workers know that pro¬ 
duction per man hour has been increased tremendously. Is that 
going to mean that a lot of workers are going to be tossed out 
later? He’s thinking about that a lot. What can the company 
tell him? 

The workers know, of course, that tremendous numbers of 
women have been hired for jobs which have never before been 
done except by men. They suspect and fear that the company 
plans to let out the men and keep the women at lower pay rates. 
They even fear that the company is going to make a point of 
hiring women at lower pay to replace the men. What can the 
company tell him about that one? 

He has been very critical of his foreman. Some of his criticism 
is, he feels, very sound. He feels first of all that foremen are not 
carefully and properly selected. Can the company give him any 
reassurance on that score or assurance as to the future? 

He states that most of the foremen don’t know how to handle 
men. That is a serious complaint and criticism of management. 
Is management making any plans to train foremen in that 
respect? He would like to know. 

Will there be a new program for selection and training of fore¬ 
men and will it be possible for him perhaps to qualify? Can the 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


28 

company give him any assurance that with efficient, capable 
and honest work he will have an opportunity to apply for and to 
be considered for a foreman’s position? 

Is the company open to legitimate complaints and criticisms? 
If so, what is the company doing about setting up a ready chan¬ 
nel for complaints and a sympathetic hearing? 

He feels that the personnel men and other executives think 
only of avoiding, dodging and beating down complaints and 
criticisms. He would like to feel that they have a real interest 
in the situation on the part of the men and will give considera¬ 
tion to honest complaints. 

Why doesn’t the company give him a chance to speak up? By 
that he does not mean to get on the carpet in front of the big 
desk of the personnel man or the superintendent. He means hav¬ 
ing group meetings in which the men will be invited to express 
themselves freely in front of their fellows as well as the boss. He 
would like that. 

Above all, he would like some feeling of contact with the boss. 
He knows that cannot be, and probably in most cases should not 
be, the president of the company. But there are bosses well up 
above the level of foremen and supervisors whose interest in him 
he would appreciate. He would like it if that boss would stop 
by and speak to him once in a while and indicate some feeling 
that the boss is interested in him as an individual. 

“One thing which the worker wants and which has been lost 
sight of in the last several months — in fact, it is denied in 
some quarters — is recognition by the boss. He wants praise from 
his boss, that is, from the president of the company, as well as 
from the foreman. He wants both to say, ‘Joe is a good man, Joe 
is okay.’ He knows that the boss is the only fellow who can give 
him advancement. Through unions he might get seniority or a 
a nickel an hour more, but the boss can move him from his $1 


WHAT THE WORKERS WANT 


29 

an hour job up to I1.50 an hour as a supervisor. He also knows 
that sometime the boss may be called upon to recommend him in 
some way, and he wants to be known to the boss as a good fellow 
so he will get that sendoff when it comes.” — R. S. Livingstone, 
in The Conference Board Management Record. 

So much for the things he criticizes or would like to know in 
regard to his own company. There are plenty of others but these 
are major. If the company will answer and inform him on these, 
the others will straighten themselves out all right. But he wants 
to know. 


VIII 

THEY WANT INFORMATION 


The worker reads and hears plenty of criticism of industry and 
big business. To him that means not only business in general, it 
means his company, too. Nobody has taken the trouble to give 
him any information to counter that as far as his company is 
concerned. There has already been pointed out the difference 
in attitude where that has been done, but in most cases it has not. 

So the worker looks at business as a whole, at industry, at cap¬ 
ital, and he has a lot of questions about them, a lot of things he 
would like to know. 

What are the aims of business and industry? So far as he knows 
the only aim is to make all the money they can at the expense 
of the workers. Is that true? If it is not true why doesn’t some¬ 
body tell him about it? Why doesn’t business give him the facts? 

He’s getting plenty of critical information from government 
and labor unions. More management executives should read the 
union publications. 

Hasn’t business anything to say for itself? 

If business does not take the trouble to inform him, one of two 
things is true. Either business has no defense against those criti¬ 
cisms and they are correct, or else business does not care or give a 
damn about the workers and their opinions, which is what he has 
already said. In most cases business is in the doghouse in the 
minds of the workers. 

Of private enterprise the program of the U.A.M.—C.I.O. In¬ 
ternational Executive Board states, “Our industries can no 
longer be operated to serve private interests where those interests 
conflict with the public need. Initiative can find its most useful 
outlet, greatest recognition and highest reward when exerted in 
the public service.” 


30 


THEY WANT INFORMATION 


3 * 


The assumption on the part of the workers from this is that 
industry is operating only to serve private interests and without 
regard to the public need. What has industry done to convince 
the workers otherwise? To what degree has industry done a con¬ 
structive job in making clear to the workers the part that indus¬ 
try has played in serving the public? 

Is business as a whole doing anything in regard to post-war 
planning? In the nationwide Wage Earner Forum conducted 
and published monthly by Macfadden Publications, Inc., 81% 
of the workers have heard nothing about any plans on the part 
of business or anyone else for post-war. When some of the work¬ 
ers have been told briefly and simply about the plans and work 
of the Committee for Economic Development, they have ex¬ 
pressed tremendous interest. Every one of them has said, “Why 
don’t they tell us folks about it? Don’t they think we are inter¬ 
ested in that too?” 

It is up to business to tell them about those plans in terms 
which will be of interest to them. Does business expect to have 
that information transmitted to them by the government 
bureaus or by the labor unions? The only cases where informa¬ 
tion is given from those two sources, it plays up the activities of 
each of those two sources. When business is also involved, it is 
presented as a very minor partner. Very often the information 
is so presented that it appears that business is being forced to 
cooperate against its will. 

Is that true? How should the workers know unless business 
tells them? They would like to hear about it. 

Most of the workers realize that it is going to be quite a job to 
shift over from war production back to civilian goods in many 
types of plants. They know that, because they saw the shift-over 
from civilian production to war production. As workers in fac¬ 
tories, they know something of what is involved. Has anybody 


32 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


ever explained to the workers why it is necessary to lay aside 
some of the company’s present earnings to cover reconversion? 
Also to cover wages to labor during reconversion period? Also 
to cover wages to labor after reconversion until the goods are 
sold and the money begins to flow back from the customers? How 
can the workers know about that unless they are told? 

The only people concerned with the welfare of the workers 
are the government and the labor leaders — that is what most of 
the workers think. And in regard to government, they have been 
told that for the protection of the workers government must con¬ 
trol, regulate, supervise and dominate industry and business. 

Is that true? It has been put up so convincingly that 40 °f 0 of 
all the wage earners replied on the Wage Earner Forum that 
they feel they must look to government in the future. 

Are there any advantages to the worker in the system of pri¬ 
vate enterprise and free competition? Maybe there are. The 
workers would be very much interested in information on that 
point. They would like to know. 

One of the workers in a Midwestern city said that he was sure 
he knew why the big fellows are so darned anxious to have this 
free enterprise they are shouting about all the time. The reason 
is that it means they would have complete ‘freedom to exploit 
the workers’. That is not only the understanding in the mind of 
this man in regard to this free enterprise which is spoken of so 
freely, but represents one of the many distorted conceptions in 
the minds of the majority of the workers. 

Management should always be certain that when it talks in 
public or to its own workers it uses language and terms which 
are so clear that the meaning cannot be misunderstood. Manage¬ 
ment should not be like the distinguished gentleman who, when 
told that free enterprise was a phrase often misunderstood, sug¬ 
gested this, “Individualistic competitive economy versus social- 


THEY WANT INFORMATION 33 

istic or totalitarian economy.” We wonder if he thought many 
workers would understand that one. 

Why is free competition and the system of private enterprise 
to their advantage — if it is? 

Can business explain this to them in terms of their own lives, 
their contacts, their interests, instead of in terms of high finance 
and incomprehensible economics? 

It is to the advantage of industry that wages be low, according 
to the understanding of the workers. Of course, many years ago 
Henry Ford proved the advantage of high wages. Wages are 
merely consuming and purchasing power. Does business believe 
that or not? The men would like to know. 

Who does profit from private enterprise? Who is capital? Is 
it just the fat boys in the front office and their ‘millionaire 
friends’? If not, who is it? 

Are the workers just workers to be bought at so much per 
hour, or are they customers and voters? What does business think 
about that? The workers believe that business thinks only the 
former. Business has not bothered to tell them its viewpoints. 

At the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant there has been developed 
an organization of employees which has been very successful. 
In a recent article by Edgar R. Champion, the Secretary of the 
Executive Taxpayers’ Committee, he wrote as follows: 

‘‘As it is now, in many companies there is no clear conception 
on the part of many workers that their interests and the com¬ 
pany’s interests are one and the same. With the facts being 
what they are, this failure of employees and management in 
many plants to understand each other’s problems more clearly 
is a national tragedy which results in needless waste.” 

Above all, what the workers would like to ask of industry 
and business is that they be treated as intelligent human beings. 
They ask that industry give them credit for an average amount 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


34 

of intelligence and understanding. They ask that business give 
them credit for being fundamentally fair-minded. They insist 
that if drey do not seem to be fair-minded, if they are wrong 
in their viewpoints and prejudices, it is because they have not 
had information. 

They do not want to be wrong. They feel it is very important 
that they should not be wrong. 

They feel that they have the power in their hands and that 
they can exert this power through their votes and through their 
unions. They feel that all too often industry is reasonable and 
considerate only insofar as it is forced to be by the unions and 
by government. They feel that industry is just biding its time 
until the day when it again can have the upper hand and crack 
the whip. 

Is that true? They would like to know. 

They can form judgments if they are given information. At the 
present time they say emphatically that they are getting little or 
no information from industry, from business, from their com¬ 
pany, on any of these points. 

“All of this,” said a high executive of one of the big com¬ 
panies, “is very true; but it does not apply to our company, or 
our city.” Is he sure? Does he know? 


IX 

SOME THINGS NOT TO DO 

There lies ahead of industry an important and far from easy 
task if it is to meet and handle adequately the criticisms, doubts 
and questions of the workers as expressed in previous chapters. 

From discussions with the workers there has developed a 
rather clear idea of what are their criticisms and what are the 
things which they would like to know. From them we have also 
learned a great deal as to how well and how far industry is meet¬ 
ing those criticisms and desires for information. From the side 
of industry we have a picture of the efforts which are being made 
on the part of many progressive manufacturers and groups; but 
it is apparent that many of those efforts are still far from result¬ 
ful. As we study the attitudes of the workers we begin to see why 
some of these efforts are not resultful. 

Before discussing some of the things which industry might 
and should do in these directions it would be well to look at some 
of the things which industry must not do or must cease doing. 
These “don’ts” make a somewhat lengthy and impressive list. 
They should be carefully studied by every manufacturer and 
every group of manufacturers in relation to their own situation 
and their own activities. Many manufacturers with the best in¬ 
tent in the world fail to realize the degree to which they are vio¬ 
lating some of these fundamental “don’ts”, and for that reason 
are not getting better reactions from their efforts. 

Some of these “don’ts” are rather broad in their implications. 
Others are very specific. They are all important. Others could 
be added to the list. However, the manufacturer who will study 
this list carefully and check it against all of his own activities 
will have accomplished a great deal of the first step toward 
better labor relations. 


35 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


These are some of the major “don’ts”: 

— Don’t under-estimate the importance of what the 
workers in your plant think about your company and its 
management. Their attitudes are important to you. Be¬ 
yond that, they are important to all of us because it is the 
accumulated attitudes of the workers in all the plants 
which will determine the future of our national policies. 
— Don’t assume that conditions are all right in your plant 
just so long as there are no strikes or riots. Even the de¬ 
gree of turnover is not a measure of satisfactory condi¬ 
tions. Many men stick at their jobs and collect their day’s 
pay with a bitterness of feeling and attitude which har¬ 
bors ill for future relations. Of course there are always 
a few mal-contents and ‘crabs’; if there are any number 
who harbor such attitudes and feelings, watch out. 

— Don’t think that you know the attitudes of your work¬ 
ers. I have yet to find the head of any plant to whom I 
was unable to tell things about his workers which aston¬ 
ished and disturbed him. The chances are you are com¬ 
pletely unaware of a great many attitudes among your 
workers. Don’t neglect to ferret them out. 

— Don’t expect some executive to mind-read the workers 
from behind his mahogany desk. The probabilities are 
that he will simply imagine what he would be thinking, 
and that is far from what the workers are thinking. 

— Don’t be satisfied to take the word about conditions 
among your workers and their attitudes from some of 
your subordinates who (a) may not really know or (b) 
may not be capable of knowing or (c) to whose interest it 
may be to mislead or lull you. 

— Don’t dismiss criticisms as of no real importance. Some 
of those may not seem important to you, but they may be 


SOME THINGS NOT TO DO 


37 


very important and very real to the men. 

— In the case of criticisms or grievances don’t think you 
have won by outsmarting or confusing the workers or 
their representatives. In many plants that seems to be a 
company policy, or at least the policy of those in charge 
of personnel and labor relations. They seem to win at 
the moment, but it builds up a smoldering fire of resent¬ 
ment and there are many cases where that resentment 
has finally flowered into strikes. And it all started be¬ 
cause some executive in the company felt very well pleased 
at having outsmarted the representative of the workers. 

— Don’t attack the motives of the other fellow. In the first 
place, while he may be completely wrong, his motives at 
the same time may be completely right. And also remem¬ 
ber that he is probably criticizing your motives just as 
severely. 

— Don’t criticize unions as such. Many of the men are 
just as critical as you are of some of the union officials, 
but those same men have great faith and confidence in 
their unions. Their union is closer to them than their 
company. When you criticize the Union because it is a 
union you are starting trouble. 

— By the same token don’t try to by-pass the unions. You 
will only lose and not gain — except resentment. 

— Do not devote all your effort to proving that the other 
fellow is wrong. That may give you a lot of satisfaction 
personally, but it does not clear up the situation. Try to 
be constructive in your criticisms as well as your dis¬ 
cussions. 

— In talking to the workers about such things as ‘free 
competition’ and ‘private enterprise’, above all do not 
talk to them from your point of view and in your lan- 




WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


guage. They have not had the same background of edu¬ 
cation and experience and daily contact with people 
who are discussing those subjects. 

— By the same token, don’t talk in terms of vast num¬ 
bers and incomprehensible figures of billions and mil¬ 
lions. Those figures are even more beyond their compre¬ 
hension than yours. 

— And in such discussions or printed matter, avoid like 
the plague the phrases of the professional economist. 
Omit the seven dollar words. 

— Avoid such terms as “The National Economy.” The 
worker doesn’t even know what you mean when you 
talk about that. He is interested in his own personal econ¬ 
omy. Don’t use terms that are not familiar and under¬ 
standable to him. 

— There is no class system in this country, so by all means 
avoid use of such terms as “Working Class” or “Laboring 
Class.” 

— Don’t assume that their views toward money and cap¬ 
ital are like yours. They are dealing with a different set 
of realities. Theirs is the day’s pay and the weekly house¬ 
hold budget, while you are dealing with what to them are 
astronomical figures in relation to the operations of your 
company. 

— Don’t assume that the men have the same understanding 
of finance, economics and other problems that you have. 
If so, they’d be in your shoes or sitting behind your desk. 
On the other hand, don’t think that they can’t understand 
economics providing you get down to earth. One leading 
industrialist tells the story of a group of economists who 
tried to define economics and came up with a twenty- 
volume definition. The King had half of them shot and 


SOME THINGS NOT TO DO gg 

ordered the remainder to boil it down. Six months later 
they came back with a six-volume definition, whereupon 
the King had them all shot but one old gaffer. When the 
King told him he could have one month to come back 
with a definition, the old man said he was ready then 
and there, and it would take him only one sentence — 
“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” 

— And don’t think that what you put out, whether in 
bulletins, letters or in your advertising or otherwise, will 
interest the workers because it interests you. It is very 
probable that the contrary is true. Your background, 
your daily contacts, your experiences, are so completely 
different that your point of view is definitely other than 
that of your workers. The presentation and the appeal 
that strike you as being powerful, interesting and dra¬ 
matic will probably fail completely to interest, attract 
and appeal to the workers. 

— And while on this subject, don’t expend your efforts 
in getting your ideas, your messages, your advertising over 
to your friends and associates. They don’t need it because 
they already believe as you do. 

— In other words, don’t waste your efforts in talking to 
one another. It used to be said that the Chinese made their 
living taking in one another’s washing. But that won’t 
work here today. 

— And in whatever you put out in any kind of messages, 
written or verbal, through any medium, don’t deal in gen¬ 
eralities. Generalities never convinced anyone. Never 
fail to be specific. Never overlook the opportunity to talk 
in the specific terms of the interest of the workers. 

— In so doing be very sure that you do not use words in 
place of thoughts. There are so many glib phrases which 


4 o 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


have currency today. Because of association they may have 
meaning to you, but they have no meaning whatever to 
the men who work in the factories. Nor should you use 
complex and involved sentences or expressions. Bear in 
mind that most of these men have only a grammar school 
or high school education. They do not read the same lit¬ 
erature that you read and, it must be added, so often words 
are used to confuse thoughts even among ourselves, and 
sometimes to cover up the lack of thought. Be sure you 
are not doing that in your messages to your workers. 

— Don’t think that a few formal messages “To All Em¬ 
ployees” will do the job — even if they do read them. And 
do not think that factory bulletins alone will do the job. 
All of that is too easy. 

— But in those things which you do put out don’t, even 
unconsciously, patronize the workers. They feel individ¬ 
ually that they are just as good as you are. They probably 
are. 

— Don’t think that nice rest rooms and other facilities, 
desirable as they are, will take the place of sound, human 
relations. Those things are highly important, but if you 
can have only one or the other, keep the human relations. 

— As for correcting the situation in regard to foremen and 
supervisors, don’t for a moment think that just telling 
them will change their attitudes. You have just as big a 
job to do with them, and perhaps a bigger one than with 
the men. That job starts back with management. 

— In communications with your men don’t try to kid 
them or fool them. They will soon get wise to you. If you 
can’t be frank say nothing. Never say anything if you 
don’t mean it. 

— In the same category comes this other caution. Don’t 


SOME THINGS NOT TO DO 


41 


think that part of the whole story will do. 

— In whatever you undertake toward the betterment of 
labor-management relations, towards developing under¬ 
standing and confidence on the part of your workers, there 
is one very important “don’t”. It is this — don’t overlook 
the fact that your company and its name carry more 
weight with your employees and with those who buy and 
use your products than does the name of any group or 
organization. 

— Which brings us to the last of these “don’ts”, which is 
this — Don’t forget that it is your job, not someone else’s. 
For what is the other fellow’s business ends up by being 
nobody’s business. The attitudes of the workers and of 
the nation are the accumulative pattern of the attitudes 
of the men in every plant and every industry. 

All of these negatives, these cautions, come from the mouths 
of the workers in the factories across the country. These are the 
things which industry must definitely avoid if it is to communi¬ 
cate successfully with the workers. Only by watching all of these 
cautions will it be possible for industry to give information which 
will be accepted by the workers — only in this way will industry 
be able to secure understanding on the part of the workers. 
These cautions are a part of the understanding which industry 
must have of its workers. They are suggestions of the many angles 
from which industry must understand its workers, if it expects 
to convey to them understanding of business. 

These are the things not to be done. In the next chapter we 
take up the “Positives” — the answers to “What Shall We Do 
About It?”. 


X 

SOME THINGS TO DO 


It is hardly necessary to emphasize that these attitudes on the 
part of the workers require the most serious and earnest atten¬ 
tion of industry. Unless that attention is given, the implications 
for the future may be extremely serious. 

Here is a situation where most of the workers are receiving 
more money than they ever received before. Their weekly take- 
home pay averages twice what it did a few years ago. Whether 
the cost of living has risen 25% or 50%, the fact remains that the 
average worker’s family has more ‘loose money’ to spend than 
ever before in their lives. 

Yet it is obvious from what these men say that “man does not 
live by bread alone.” 

If these attitudes toward industry as a whole continue, it does 
not require a soothsayer to forecast what will be the attitudes 
of government toward industry in the years ahead. Obviously, 
the votes of the workers are more important to the political lead¬ 
ers than the votes of the heads of industry. Even though we may 
convince the politicians that the ultimate welfare of the work¬ 
ers can best be promoted by enterprising and unhampered indus¬ 
try, they hardly dare go against the sentiments of such a majority 
group as the wage earners. 

But to each manufacturer there is a more immediate impor¬ 
tance to these attitudes of labor than the national situation, as 
vital as that will be to him in the long run. The immediate con¬ 
sequence is that which may well develop in relation to the indi¬ 
vidual plant. In fact, some of those consequences are showing 
themselves today in many plants. It is axiomatic that a bitter 
and discontented worker cannot do the best sort of work. Such 
bitterness spreads through the plant and affects others. It empha- 


42 


SOME THINGS TO DO 


43 


sizes and exaggerates every difficulty and every problem. It breeds 
a condition which results in the worker feeling that he would 
rather like to go on strike and ‘show those guys up top’. 

What will be the results in the individual plant where such atti¬ 
tudes exist when it becomes necessary to reduce the hours of work 
to forty a week, or perhaps thirty-five? And when it becomes nec¬ 
essary, if it should, to lay off a considerable number of the work¬ 
ers? Many plants know that they will have to lay off a great many 
men during the reconversion period. What will happen then? 

It is true that the majority of the workers are at present op¬ 
posed to strikes. In a recent nation-wide poll among wage earners 
conducted by the Research Division of Macfadden Publications, 
it was found that more than half of them felt that during the war 
strikes should be prohibited by law. Nearly half of the union 
members expressed this same opinion. 

In too many cases that opinion does not arise from any loyalty 
to the company. It is the result solely of a feeling that the war 
effort must be carried on to a successful and quick conclusion. 
It is a patriotic feeling which is stronger than the feeling of dis¬ 
content and bitterness toward the company. 

Some day the war will end. That attitude and feeling of patri¬ 
otic obligation will cease. What then? 

The time to meet that situation is now. It has been allowed 
to develop over a long period. Obviously, it cannot be corrected 
in a few weeks or months. 

Statements and protestations alone will not correct it. 

As far as the workers are concerned, industry has got to prove 
its attitudes and intentions. They must be proved by action. 
Industry has a long job to do to convince the workers that it is 
interested in them. 

The workers are skeptical. They feel there is every reason why 
they should be. 


44 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


Yet, individual companies in many instances have shown that 
it is entirely possible to remove this skepticism from the work¬ 
ers and to secure their interest and understanding. 

But even among such companies, few are doing all that they 
might do in this direction. It is the purpose of the next chapters 
to outline specifically what can be done and how. 

No concerted or general expressions on the part of industry 
will be accepted by the workers, who feel that those expressions 
and protestations do not represent the attitude of their own com¬ 
pany. In fact, without sound attitudes on the part of most com¬ 
panies, such general statements of policy and protestations of 
concern for the workers will backfire. That is happening now. 

Understanding can be secured only if it is based upon sincerity. 
Management can never sell to the workers the attitudes and 
understanding which it would like, unless management is itself 
as nearly as may be above reproach. Management can not sell to 
the workers a belief in things which do not exist. So it is funda¬ 
mental that the first job of management is to be sure that its own 
intentions, attitudes, and methods of dealing with the wage 
earners are right. 

So the first job for each manufacturer is to see that his own 
house is in order. 

That is the first and most immediate of the three areas in which 
this work can be done; cooperation with the workers in the indi¬ 
vidual plants is the most immediate objective. That is the easiest 
and at the same time most difficult. 

It is easiest because it is right at hand and can be under daily 
observation and study. It is the most difficult because it is much 
easier to produce publicity and advertising which does not re¬ 
quire any serious or sincere effort beyond the assignment to the 
advertising or publicity department. And at the risk of offending 
many of the very able and capable men in publicity and adver- 


SOME THINGS TO DO 


45 

tising, it must be stated that few of them indeed understand the 
attitudes and interests of the workers. 

The nation, the state, the community, and the plant are made 
up of individuals. That is all we have to deal with — individual 
people. The trouble is that so often we cannot see the individual 
trees because we are so intent on looking at the forest. The pur¬ 
pose of this book is to discuss how to deal with these individuals, 
with those who together make up what is sometimes called labor. 
The matter of dealing with the representatives of labor and with 
the unions is another problem. It is not within the province of 
this book. 

The first job is thus within the manufacturer’s own company. 
If that is adequately done by the majority of industries, the other 
jobs will be much easier. But they are necessary today because 
the complete task is of such urgent importance and of such wide 
scope that more must be done than correcting attitudes within 
the plant. 

The second area, then, is the community. There are com¬ 
munity attitudes and interests as well as plant attitudes and 
interests. People do not associate alone with their fellow em¬ 
ployees in a given company, nor do their families associate only 
with the families of others who work at the same plant. 

It is true that employees in a plant which has a good labor 
relations situation tell about it to their friends and neighbors. 
It is simply human that those friends and neighbors then become 
even more bitter toward the management in their own plants if in 
that plant such favorable conditions and attitudes do not exist. 

But the reverse of this is also true. One or two rotten apples 
can infect an entire barrel. We have seen in certain communities 
that bad employee attitudes in a couple of plants have a very 
bad effect upon the attitudes of all workers in the city toward 
industry as a whole. 


4 6 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


Those who work in plants where they respect and have con¬ 
fidence in their management then feel that their own plant is an 
exception. They still feel that industry as a whole is pretty bad. 

More than that, they feel that they must take part in the pro¬ 
tests of their fellows and express their own criticism of industry 
for conditions which exist in some plants even though not in 
their own. 

We are all familiar with the so-called sympathetic strikes. The 
attitude which results in those is not a freak phenomenon. It is 
fundamental in human nature. People have what is so often 
referred to as the group or herd instinct. That is why we have 
nations. The same instinct expresses itself as indicated above. 

Within the area of the individual city such influences are apt 
to be very definite and strong. It is therefore important to con¬ 
sider this second or community area of activity. 

Third, is the national area. National trends of opinion are im¬ 
portant. People are tremendously influenced by what they think 
other people think. While they of course do not know of their 
own knowledge the thoughts of other similar people in other 
sections of the country, they do conclude what these people think 
from the things they read, see, and hear. So the third or national 
area must also be dealt with. 

That, toq, is the problem and the province of the individual 
manufacturer. Why this is so will be developed in the chapter 
dealing with the national problem. 

But one thing is paramount in regard to every one of these jobs. 
Unless it is done with a real and true understanding of the think¬ 
ing, of the attitudes of these workers, it will fail. It must be carried 
on, not from the point of view of our interest and understanding, 
but from the point of view of theirs, from where they live. 

The problem is distrust. Do we deserve trust? Mutual trust 
comes only from understanding. 


XI 

WITHIN THE PLANT 


JLhe most dangerous assumption which a manufacturer can 
make is that morale and attitudes of the workers in his own plant 
are sweet and lovely. Perhaps his plant managers, supervisors 
and others think that such is the condition. They may be wrong. 
Or there have been known to be cases where existence of bad 
morale and unfavorable attitudes have been carefully kept from 
top management. 

The first job of management is to know what it is shooting at. 
There is no use of mounting and galloping off furiously in one 
direction if there are no troubles over there but plenty of them 
in other directions. 

It may also be that many of the supervisory staff do not know as 
much as they should about the attitudes of the workers. 

Some of the companies which are doing the finest type of job 
in worker relations see to it that there is a periodic and thorough 
checkup in regard to the results of what they are doing, and also 
to find out if there are developing new problems of which they 
may not be aware. 

To secure this information is the first basic job, and it is not 
simple and sometimes not easy to do. Very often the men hesitate 
to express themselves to their superiors. More often the men are 
not completely frank in such expression. They will frequently 
talk more freely with a disinterested outsider than with their 
bosses. 

But one of the first things to be done is to talk with the men. 
If the boss cannot do it himself, he should have it done by some 
person or persons in whom he has confidence. 

Quite often the president or general manager or other top ex¬ 
ecutive of the company is unable to talk with the men. This 


47 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


48 

inability may spring on the one hand from his occupation with 
the many other problems which constantly lie before him. On 
the other hand, it may be that he does not know how to talk to 
the men. That latter is too often true. 

But in any case, either the head of the plant or someone whom 
he trusts should make it a practice to circulate among the men 
and talk with them. This should be on a friendly, personal basis, 
not on an official basis. 

Much of it can be done within the plant itself. Nothing will 
please the men better than if one of the big bosses occasionally 
stops by for a moment or two of friendly chat. 

It may be done at their homes. This takes a little more time 
but it often proves much more resultful in learning what is 
really in the minds of the men. Twenty friendly and informal 
visits at the homes of the men may develop more real information 
than two hundred chats with the men in the factory. 

The purpose of such friendly chats has been stated above to 
be the securing of true information as to the attitudes of the 
men, but it has another equally important objective. 

If done properly and sincerely, it impresses on the men the 
feeling that the big boss and the company are really interested 
in them; that they, the men, are not considered merely as goods 
and chattels or pieces of machinery, but are thought of as real 
individuals and people. 

Just as the head of the company appreciates commendation 
from his board of directors or from the chairmen of the board, 
so do the workers in the plant appreciate a friendly word of 
approval and encouragement. 

The men are used to receiving orders and instructions. They 
will greatly appreciate an occasional few words which are not 
orders or perhaps criticisms. They will appreciate these from 
foremen and supervisors, too, but that will be discussed later. 


WITHIN THE PLANT 


49 


But knowing something of the attitudes and desires of the men 
from such personal contacts or from what has previously been 
stated in this book, the next problem is what information to give 
them and how to do it. 

BULLETINS AND LETTERS 

Bulletins in the plant are, of course, excellent. That is, they 
are excellent provided they are constructive. Take, for exam¬ 
ple, the subject of absenteeism. Some of the plant bulletins on 
that subject have been very good and have stimulated the inter¬ 
est and cooperation of the workers. Others have merely antag¬ 
onized the workers who have been known to thumb their noses 
at the bulletins and say “nuts”. That was because those bulletins 
were purely critical and not constructive. 

This comment in regard to such subjects as absenteeism is 
verified by the findings of a Harvard University study on absen¬ 
teeism. This considered the effects of labor compulsion and 
stated, “At a time when absenteeism was stigmatized as unpatri¬ 
otic, when government, industry and society were considering 
penalties — there was serious risk of alienating the large group 
of conscientious workers.” The Harvard investigators found 
inadequate management a basic cause of absenteeism and that 
forced labor would do more harm than good. As was stated by the 
British Information Service, “Any negative steps can never, by 
themselves, achieve the results which are desired.” 

If the bulletin’s story can be got over very quickly with a few 
words and a picture and be constructive rather than critical, then 
the bulletin will be good. People respond to that as they never 
will to criticism. 

That does not mean to say that errors of commission and omis¬ 
sion should not be pointed out, but there are two ways to point 
out errors, and management should always be sure that the 


5 ° 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


pointing out is not purely critical and condemnatory. 

In regard to bulletins on this subject of absenteeism, it has 
been shown time and again that those bulletins which criticize 
and complain about absenteeism increase it rather than reduce 
it. On the other hand, bulletins which point out reasonably and 
logically the advantage to the worker and of the job he has to do, 
of his being on the job regularly, get results — constructive not 
destructive. 

Individual bulletins or letters addressed merely ‘to all em¬ 
ployees’ and handed out in the plant are cold and impersonal. 
They usually get little or no attention. The worker usually is 
prepared to be critical even before he reads it. It’s just ‘more 
orders from the stuffed shirts in the front office’. 

One way in which that has been overcome by some companies 
is sending a letter to the worker’s home address, providing the 
subject matter is important enough. 

For example, it has been pointed out that the workers in most 
of the plants feel that the company is making two or three dollars 
in profit for every dollar paid out in wages. An annual or semi¬ 
annual statement of the company’s operations sent to all em¬ 
ployees at their homes has proven very resultful. In this, it is 
shown exactly how much money the company took in during 
the year and that is broken down to show how much went for 
raw materials and supplies, how much for taxes, how much for 
light, heat and other things of that sort and so on, and finally 
how much for wages. 

But where that is done it should be very carefully indicated 
exactly how much goes to wages. There should not be one lump 
figure or segment of the chart for the total of ‘wages and sal¬ 
aries’. That merely confirms the suspicion of the men that most 
of it goes to salaries. 

Letters to the home, however, should be used sparingly and 


WITHIN THE PLANT 


51 


only to give information of real importance. They should be 
complete and comprehensive as to the subject matter discussed. 
There should be careful avoidance of partial information or 
skipping over of part of the story. 

The letters should be written simply, without long words and 
complicated sentence structures. Sentences should be short and 
simple. They should be written in the sort of language which is 
familiar to the recipient. 

If there is any question on that subject, it might be suggested 
that the one who is to write the letter do several things. Let him 
try to discuss and explain the matter to a few of the men per¬ 
sonally. He will soon find out what kind of language and phrases 
he has to use and how he has to expound the situation to make it 
clear. Then let him read some of the literature which these men 
and their families read, the type of newspapers, union publica¬ 
tions, general magazines that appeal to them. That is the kind of 
simple language and simple exposition to be used. 

Do not be afraid of insulting the intelligence of the more 
highly educated among the men. If you make it simple enough 
for the average man to understand, there can be no question 
that the above average one will get it. 

Letters and similar forms of communication can be used very 
effectively if they are constructive and sincere, but above all they 
must be sincere and management must mean what it says in them. 
And of course basically they must be written and prepared with 
an understanding of the interests, attitudes, and viewpoints of 
the workers. 

Misunderstanding is very easy. An honest and sincere state¬ 
ment on the part of management may be misunderstood by the 
workers unless management knows how the workers are thinking 
and how they will react. 

For example, in one city the head of a company who was doing 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


52 

a fine job on management-worker relations planned to tell the 
workers in his plant that they were shifting over from cost-plus 
to fixed price on their army aviation contract. He further said 
that he was going to tell the men that that was at the request 
of the army and the company was not doing it to put something 
over on the government. He failed entirely to realize that the 
reaction of the men would be quite otherwise, for the men have 
been told and have been given all kinds of stories to the effect 
that management is profiteering and racketeering on war con¬ 
tracts. Of course their reaction to his statement would be “Well, 
the army has caught up with you so-and-so’s at last.” 

HOUSE ORGANS 

Employee publications are a medium which can be used very 
effectively. Again, they must be used well. 

An employee publication must be written in its entirety from 
the viewpoint of the interests of the employees. Why should they 
read it if it does not interest them? The fact that the material in 
it is of interest and concern to the executives of the company will 
never attract them to it. 

In a certain large company one of the correspondents for the 
employee magazine who was stationed in one of the branch 
plants, wrote a long letter to the editor with some very construc¬ 
tive criticisms and suggestions. Somehow a carbon copy of this 
letter got into the hands of the general manager, who called the 
editor on the carpet. Instead of welcoming the opportunity to 
analyze the reason for the criticisms and suggestions of this 
employee correspondent, the general manager informed the 
editor that something had got to be done about it, that that 
fellow was on the wrong side of the fence, that unless he got over 
onto the company’s side of the fence they would have to get rid 
of him. 


WITHIN THE PLANT 


53 


If that is the attitude of management in regard to its employee 
publication, it would well be discontinued and the paper saved. 

What are the readers of a company publication interested in? 
Primarily, they are interested in themselves. Second, they are 
interested in their immediate associates. Third, they are inter¬ 
ested in such activities as involve them and their associates. 
From there their interest gradually broadens to the other condi¬ 
tions and situations in regard to the company. If they are given 
what they want in the first category, the company can very well 
give them and find them interested in real information about 
the company. 

They will not read and will resent preaching and sermons. 
They will resent the company or the company executives talk¬ 
ing down to them. There should be very few, if any, articles in 
the employee publications signed by high officials or executives 
of the company. Any such matter regarding the company should 
be written as a piece of news and presented purely for the infor¬ 
mation it gives to the employees. That is the way to get it over 
to them. That is the way in which they will welcome it. 

The editor of the house organ should have in operation, or 
set up, what we in the magazine publishing business call Edi¬ 
torial Reader Research. He personally, or through his assistants, 
should be in constant touch with employees in all departments 
of the business so that he is currently well aware of their interests 
and attitudes. 

Magazine publishers have found that reader research pays off 
well. In the case of one of the Macfadden magazines the editor 
followed the implications of reports from reader interviews in 
making changes in a certain department of that magazine. 
Within three months the readership of that department in¬ 
creased over 50%. In the case of that same company reader re¬ 
search has been employed in connection with its employee house 


54 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


organ. A recent survey among all of the employees of the com¬ 
pany — conducted by the editor of the house organ, not by the 
company — showed over 98% favorable opinions of the house 
organ and an equal proportion who wanted it continued. 

Reader research must not only be permitted on the part of 
the house organ editors, but should be a part of his definite ob¬ 
ligation. Unless he carries it on he will soon be editing the house 
organ to please the big boss and will lose its influence with the 
workers. 


MAKE IT SIMPLE 

Whether in bulletins, letters to the workers, employee publica¬ 
tions or other means, it is a very good idea to use illustrations, 
diagrams, and charts. The worker likes the concentrated con¬ 
densed presentation of information which can be given in that 
way, just the same as the executive likes it in his business publica¬ 
tions and in the reports from his departments. In making up 
such illustrations and charts there should always be borne in 
mind very definitely the background of the people for whom they 
are intended. It may be that a few of the executives of the com¬ 
pany would understand a multiple correlation chart, but it is 
certain that none of the workers would. 

Charts should be very simple, very clear, and very direct. 
There should never be too much put on a single chart. It is 
better to use three or four charts than one complicated one. The 
explanation going with the chart should be completely clear. 

In one large company there is a very faithful and capable em¬ 
ployee who does his particular job exceedingly well. His name is 
Schultz. Schultz thinks things out slowly and carefully and is not 
too quick in getting things, but when he does get them he gets 
them thoroughly. Because he is not too quick in getting things, 
there has become a by-word among all those in the company 


WITHIN THE PLANT 


55 


who prepare any kind of material for their employees to say, after 
they have looked over something and find it is in their opinion 
perfectly good, “Wait a minute. Is this written so Schultz will 
understand?” And that is a pretty good criterion. If there isn’t 
a Schultz in your plant, figure one out. 


XII 

GROUP MEETINGS 


One of the most effective ways to transmit information and 
understanding to the workers in the plant has been found to 
be the use of group meetings. In the plants where this procedure 
is followed, it is found to be not only resultful as far as the com¬ 
pany is concerned, but also as far as the men are concerned. The 
men like meetings of that sort if they are properly handled. 

If the men are called together merely to listen to a pep talk 
or some scolding, then the meeting might better not be held. 

But if the meetings are called to give some real and pertinent 
information to the men, they can be very well worthwhile. Such 
meetings should not be too big in numbers. They should be by 
working groups or departments or department groups. In other 
words, each group meeting should comprise a number of men 
who have some similarity and parallel of interest as far as their 
particular part in the factory operation is concerned. 

These meetings should, of course, be on company time. The 
purpose of the meeting is for the betterment of company morale 
and company operations. It is certainly a company obligation 
and a quite justifiable expenditure of company time. Certainly 
the men should not be asked to give up their own time for that 
purpose. The time involved will not necessarily be great nor 
will the occasions be exceedingly frequent. 

The frequency of such meetings will probably be greater at 
first. There will be a great deal to be explained and discussed with 
the men. After a number of the meetings, when a better under¬ 
standing has been arrived at, the meetings will be less frequent; 
but they should be called whenever any changes in policy or new 
developments bring up matters which the men should under¬ 
stand and know about. 


56 


GROUP MEETINGS 


57 

These meetings may be presided over by someone on the 
executive staff of the company. In many instances, however, 
it has been found much better to have the meeting presided 
over by the foreman or supervisor or other management execu¬ 
tive closest to the particular group of men involved. He should 
be the one under whom the entire group works. 

If their foreman or supervisor presides over the meeting, they 
feel that he is in close contact with the big boss. That gives him 
better standing in the eyes of the men. And then, when he later 
speaks about some of these matters, they feel that he has got it 
direct from the big chief. Further than that, when any discussion 
or argument comes up concerning the matters which have been 
discussed, any of the men at the meeting are in a position to say 
that they themselves heard the lowdown on it from the big boss 
himself. That gives confidence. It also gives a feeling of close¬ 
ness to the company. 

What has been said hitherto about talking frankly, honestly, 
and sincerely applies of course in the highest degree to the con¬ 
duct of such meetings. Better say nothing than give half the 
story or a distorted view of the story. 

But most important of all, whatever is explained and dis¬ 
cussed at those meetings must be handled from the point of 
view of the interest of the workers themselves. It must be simply 
stated in terms of the things with which they have contact and 
which they understand. It cannot be given in the language of 
the directors room or report to the stockholders (which inci¬ 
dentally most stockholders never do understand). 

Where it is suitable and possible it is well to have some charts 
or diagrams to show at these meetings. There are very few sub¬ 
jects of information for which it is not possible to devise some 
illustrative diagrams or charts which will help make the sub¬ 
ject clear. 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


58 

Of course, these diagrams should be such that they do make 
the subject clear and not confuse it. They should always be very 
simple and very straightforward; and, as stated before, it is 
better to have three simple charts than one confused one. 

Whether or not he presides over the meeting, the higher execu¬ 
tive does most of the presentation of information, etc. Because 
he is the higher executive, the men will have greater confidence 
in what he says and will feel that they are getting information 
‘from the horse’s mouth.’ 

In some such meetings it has been found that the higher 
executive in his presentation is not always completely clear and 
lucid as far as the men are concerned. Sometimes it has been 
found necessary for the foreman or supervisor to enlarge upon 
and explain what has been said by the big chief. There is no 
harm in this, because in so doing the foreman or supervisor is 
reiterating and emphasizing what has been said and indicating 
that he knows, too, what it is all about. Not least, the top execu¬ 
tive will learn from such occasions how better to express himself 
in terms which the men will understand. 

One of the greatest advantages of such meetings, quite apart 
from the opportunity to inform the men, is the fact that they 
give the men an opportunity to ask questions, criticize, and ex¬ 
press themselves. One of the great complaints of the workers in 
the factories is that the boss never hears from or listens to them. 
They say that they never get a chance to ask questions or to 
criticize. These meetings take care of that if properly handled. 

Of course, there are always among any large group some few 
who are constitutionally critical and cynical. When such meet¬ 
ings as this are held at proper frequency, that type of man does 
not get the opportunity to stir up and influence his fellows as he 
would otherwise. 

There is another kind of group meeting which is very impor- 


GROUP MEETINGS 


59 

tant and which is working successfully in a number of companies. 
This is a group meeting especially called in regard to any serious 
complaint from the men. Such complaints may be in regard to 
lack of safety devices, methods of handling operations, restroom 
facilities, or any of the thousand other questions which arise. 

Probably the most successful way to handle a complaint of 
that sort is to call in everyone who is involved, even if that means 
an entire department. 

Where a complaint is handled merely by a representative of 
the men with a representative of management, the men very often 
feel that they did not get what they wanted or asked for because 
management outsmarted their representative. Sometimes they 
feel that maybe their representative did not do a good job. Some¬ 
times they even feel that management “got to” him. Yet in many 
of those cases, if all the facts were known to all the men they 
would have understood why their request could not be acceded to. 

If all of the men involved are called in and the whole matter 
is brought out for open discussion in front of all the men and 
any of the men invited to express themselves on it, then there 
are no sore spots left festering. Furthermore, all of the men hear 
the other side of the story. They know why their request cannot be 
granted if that is impossible. They get an impression of sincerity 
on the part of management which they do not get otherwise. 

The type of meetings which we have been discussing are those 
at which a higher executive of the company talks to the men, 
invites and answers their questions and criticisms. These are 
tremendously important. 

There is another type of meeting which should be encouraged 
and it should be seen that such meetings are regularly and fre¬ 
quently held. These are small group meetings under the fore¬ 
men or supervisors alone, which will be discussed in another 
chapter. 


XIII 

LISTEN TO THE MEN 

In any meeting with the workers, whether a large and more 
formal meeting at which a higher executive appears, or in 
the small meetings under the foremen, it should be made very 
easy for the men to speak up. Most of the men have very definite 
ideas on many things. Sometimes company executives are sur¬ 
prised when they learn how sound are the ideas of the men. 
Often the company learns much from them. 

But these men in most cases are not customarily vocal when 
talking with their superiors unless they have been encouraged 
to be so. But when given proper encouragement, the men will 
express themselves very definitely and very clearly. 

Sometimes it is advisable for the foreman to call on one or 
two of the men to give their thoughts on the subject. This is 
much better than arranging in advance for some of the men to 
ask questions because that gets around and causes suspicion. 
But the foreman or supervisor knows 'which of the men would 
be most apt and ready to get on their feet with a question or 
argument. They should by all means be called on. Certainly 
it is better to have arguments come out in the meeting where 
they can be answered by the company executives, than to have 
those arguments come up afterwards among the men and create 
the feeling that they have not been answered. 

If the points which the men bring up are constructive and 
beneficial, then the company profits from it, providing the com¬ 
pany is smart enough to profit from it. 

If on the other hand, some of the comments are merely critical 
and sour, certainly it is better to have them brought out at a 
meeting where they can be laid out in the open, looked at and 
discussed, than to have those attitudes festering among the men. 


60 


LISTEN TO THE MEN 


6 l 


In some plants the men are afraid to speak up even in those 
meetings because their past experience has indicated, or they 
think it has indicated, to them that it is going to be held against 
them. They are afraid that they will be penalized or perhaps even 
fired later on, because they had the ‘guts’ to get up and speak 
their mind. That is one of the problems which management 
must and can anticipate. It should be made very clear that at 
these meetings the men are on an equal footing with the boss 
and that nothing they say will be held against them. 

With that clearly understood, the men will be much more 
interested in what is told them. They will think about it more 
actively and be ready to ask questions. Only if the men ask ques¬ 
tions can it be certain that they understand what the company is 
trying to tell them. The lack of either question or argument in 
a meeting is a rather good indication that what is being said is 
not getting over at all. 

Not only should the men be encouraged to raise questions, 
but they should be asked questions. Whoever presides over the 
meeting should ask the men to raise questions either for him¬ 
self to answer or for him to secure an answer from the company 
executives. Sometimes the questions will be answered by another 
one of the men. That is splendid when it happens. 

And the men should be asked what they would like to know 
about the company and its operations. Nothing gives the men 
a greater and stronger feeling that the company is all above board 
and in the open than to be asked what they would like to know 
about the company and its business. 

A properly trained presiding officer can always handle the 
situation. If the question is altogether too hot, he can simply call 
on the men for their various opinions and then say that he will 
take it up for discussion with the company executives and give 
them a reply at a later meeting. For even in the case of hot ques- 


62 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


tions it is better to have them out in the open, and better that 
the company should know just how hot they are. 

Again it should be reiterated that in handling these meetings 
the supervisory men and executives should show a real interest 
in the workers and in what they have to say. They should neither 
be patronizing nor indifferent to the comments, questions or sug¬ 
gestions from the floor. 

One last word in connection with worker meetings of any 
kind - explain, explain, explain. And be sure that the explana¬ 
tion is from the point of view of the workers and in terms which 
they will understand. 

All of these things take time, they take thought, they take 
hard work, they are not easy to do, and of course few easy things 
are worth very much. 

The management which questions whether they can afford the 
time and effort to do the things which have been suggested on 
these pages, might well consider how much greater is the loss in 
not doing them. 

More important than the immediate loss is something else. 
Management may figure that they are getting along all right, 
things aren’t too bad. Of course, there are some troubles and 
difficulties. Of course, the men aren’t completely satisfied, but 
after all there aren’t any strikes and things are working along. 

But what of the days to come? 

“Only if full information and understanding is given to these 
people can we be assured that they will vote intelligently in 
the public interest and that they will oppose those forces which 
have been and are endeavoring to destroy the structure of free 
enterprise.”—Destiny of Free Enterprise. 

For these are the people who will decide the conditions under 
which business will operate in this country, and under which 
government may control and direct it. Why should they approve 


LISTEN TO THE MEN 


6 3 

the system of private enterprise if they feel that it is working 
unsatisfactorily in their own specific and individual case? If they 
feel that private enterprise is intent only on exploiting them 
as workers, why should they vote at the polls for those in favor 
of private enterprise? 

This is not a job which can be left to the other fellow, because 
the workers comprise those in every factory. That management 
which neglects its obligation and opportunity in this work will 
be torn down with the rest when the time comes. A satisfactory 
continuation of the American system of enterprise, develop¬ 
ment, and high standards for all, can be maintained only if 
each and every manufacturer does his individual job. And that 
means with the workers in his own individual plant. 


XIV 

WHAT CAN THE FOREMEN DO? 

In A certain mid-western city the writer was invited to address 
the monthly meeting of the Foremen’s Club. The hall was 
crowded with more than 500 foremen and supervisors. Every 
seat was taken and they stood around the wall. They had come 
to hear what the workers really thought about them. 

They listened intently to the criticisms which had been voiced 
by the factory workers. Following the talk there was a question 
and answer period which was longer than the talk. After the 
meeting was adjourned, that was followed by conversations with 
a considerable number of the foremen and supervisors. 

They did not dispute the fact that some of the foremen are 
not very competent and that some of them do not know how 
to handle men. 

They agreed that the foremen are in a very favorable relation¬ 
ship to build up understanding between the company and the 
workers. 

But they also said emphatically that in the case of most of the 
companies the foremen themselves do not have that type of 
information from the company. 

These foremen emphasized the point that their attitudes and 
operations are of necessity in most cases a reflection of the view¬ 
points and attitudes of management. They feel that they must 
be guided by what they believe and understand to be manage¬ 
ment’s attitude toward the men. In other words, the foremen, 
too, passed the ball right back to management. 

Yet from their expressions in open meeting and in personal 
conversations, it is very evident that many, and probably most, 
of the foremen would like to do a better job. They recognize 
that a large part of the unfavorable attitude of the workers 

64 


WHAT CAN THE FOREMEN DO? 65 

toward management could be overcome if they, the foremen, 
were able and permitted to act as a medium of information. 

The talk was summed up with this conclusion. “You repre¬ 
sent management but must also represent the men. You are the 
logical channel for communication between management and 
men. If you perform this dual job adequately, you can be one 
of the most important influences in making this the kind of 
America in which we shall want to live in the years to come.” 

The foremen cheered this statement and then proceeded to 
point out that its fulfillment must be initiated and developed by 
management. 

The extensive and severe criticism of foremen and supervisors 
has been referred to earlier in this book. It is obvious that in 
a great many plants there is not adequate handling of the super¬ 
visory staff. Mention has been made of the criticism in regard 
to the type of men who are often selected. This is, of course, a 
matter to which every plant management should give prompt 
attention. One of the first things which should be done if good 
morale and good operations are to be developed is to make a 
very careful study of all of the foremen and supervisors and re¬ 
place those who are not competent. Incompetence, as the men 
have pointed it out, is primarily in two areas. 

There should be a highly systematic form of foreman selection 
and training. Foremen must be selected primarily with the stand¬ 
ard of whether they are leaders. Nobody wants to work for a boss 
of whom he is not proud. Look at some of your foremen, and ask 
yourself the question, “Would I want to work for that man? Is 
he a fellow that I would be proud to work for?” Under present 
conditions companies have often moved along to leadership 
positions men who are not fully qualified. 

“The men want a well-managed department, and nothing will 
help good labor relations any more than a well-planned, orderly 


66 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


department where the boss knows what he is doing. —R. S. 
Livingstone, in The Conference Board Management Record. 

There is much criticism of the attitudes of the supervisors; for 
the men claim that a great many of the supervisory staff try to 
ride and ride the men, have no understanding or sympathy with 
the men, and feel that their whole job is to act the role of Simon 
Legree. 

If the foreman is not respected by the men who work under 
him, he cannot and will not do a capable job. He will not have 
the loyalty of his men and will not be able to get the best out of 
them. 

There are two things which are the major causes of lack of re¬ 
spect for foremen. First is lack of capability and thorough knowl¬ 
edge of the operations of the job under him. He must know the 
job and the machines better than any of the men. Much of the 
criticism of foremen is because their men know that they do not 
understand the job as well as some of their subordinates. So the 
men have no respect for them. They are just some more ‘guys who 
have sucked around the boss and fooled him into promoting 
them’. And so they lack respedt for the boss as well as for the 
foremen. 

Foremen who do not understand human nature, who do not 
know how to deal with and handle men, also fail to get the respect 
of their force. Lack of that ability to handle men is a major cause 
of friction, of slow-downs and discontent. 

Management must be sure in the first place that it has a very 
clear understanding and policy in regard to the job of the super¬ 
visory group. Having that, it must then of course make sure that 
the supervisory group are men capable of doing that kind of 
a job. 

Then comes the very important matter of training the fore¬ 
men and supervisors. Some large companies do have training 


WHAT CAN THE FOREMEN DO? 


67 

schools for the foremen and supervisors. In many plants there 
are no schools of this sort and in many cases those are not feasible. 
However, there is no reason why any plant cannot have meetings 
at which the foremen and supervisors are brought in for dis¬ 
cussion and instruction. 

The most important thing to be conveyed to the supervisory 
group is the attitude of the management. 

The studies which we have made in many cities indicate a 
very definite conviction on the part of many in the supervisory 
group in many plants that the company wants them to drive, 
criticize the men, and to crack the whip. This situation exists 
in certain companies where we know definitely that that is not 
the policy of top management. But somewhere down the line 
that idea has developed and taken root, and in the minds of some 
of the intervening officials that is a firm conviction. 

As someone once said, you can’t teach a dog tricks unless you 
know more than the dog. And certainly the supervisory staff can¬ 
not handle and guide the men unless they know what they are 
supposed to do. This they can get only from management itself. 

So proper training and counseling of the supervisory staff is 
obviously a prerequisite to the work of that staff with their men. 
Among other things, the supervisory staff should have it strongly 
impressed upon them that complaint and criticisms are not pro¬ 
ductive. This does not mean being soft and easy, but it does 
mean using the methods which will have the respect and cooper¬ 
ation of the men. 

When the supervisory staff has a proper understanding of the 
policies and wishes of the company executives, they should be 
instructed to hold regular and fairly frequent meetings of the 
group who work under them. Again, these meetings must of 
course be on company time. They need not be long and they 
certainly need not be time-wasting. In fact, if properly handled 


68 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


the time taken up for these meetings will be paid for many fold 
in results. 

At such meetings the foremen can talk in more specific and im¬ 
mediate terms in relation to the job which his gang is doing. He 
can both praise and criticize the group as a whole. Such group 
praise and criticism, particularly the latter, goes much better 
than criticism of the individual man. There is in any group a 
team spirit. If it does not exist there is something the matter with 
the foreman. But where that team spirit exists, the men them¬ 
selves will do something about it within their own number if 
there is sound ground for criticism. What exactly should be said 
and done at these meetings has no place in this book because there 
are as many kinds of things to be done as there are companies and 
groups of workers. In every plant and within every department 
there are individual problems. The company supervisors and 
executives should know and understand what these problems 
are. If not, they cannot be told from the outside. 

Perhaps the greatest benefit from such small meetings held 
regularly is the feeling it engenders among the men. These meet¬ 
ings will do more than almost anything else to have the men feel 
that the company and the supervisory staff are really interested 
in them and that they are all working together. 

It may be recalled that in “Pattern for Survival” was told of 
one large plant in the South where the men are tremendously 
enthusiastic over their jobs. They said that the reason was that 
they had been organized into teams, each one under a general 
supervisor, but each team with its own leader and feeling that it 
was on its own. The teamwork which developed was terrific and 
the men were constantly in competition, team against team, for 
production records. 

It is such spirit which small group meetings help to develop. 


THE COMMUNITY JOB 


The commmunity is important to the individual plant just as it 
is important to the country as a whole. Workers in a given com¬ 
munity or city exchange ideas. They associate together and they 
pass along information, comments, criticisms. 

In one city where we have made some of our extensive studies 
in the attitudes of the workers, we set up a score sheet. For each 
company, we scored the number of workers interviewed who 
spoke favorably on the whole of that company, and on the other 
side those who spoke unfavorably and gave it a bad name. In the 
case of one company, the score was 81% good reports and 19% 
bad. For another company it was 87% good and 13% bad. The 
balance went all the way down the scale to a scoring for one com¬ 
pany of 100% bad. 

As has been pointed out, it is not enough that a worker in 
Plant X should have enthusiasm and loyalty toward his com¬ 
pany. If he finds that the workers in all of the other plants in the 
city are very critical of their companies and feel that their com¬ 
panies have no interest in or concern about them, then the 
worker in Plant X is apt to feel that while his company is fine, 
it is an exception and that the system of private enterprise as a 
whole is no good. 

The community area of activity is important for another 
reason. Not all management sees eye to eye. Not all management 
is as enlightened as others. Some managements need education 
as much and often more than do the supervisory staff and the 
workers. One way to give them that education is to get all of 
the managements in a city together. This is being done in some 
places. 

An excellent illustration of how it is being done in other direc- 

69 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


?0 

tions is the work of the Committee for Economic Development. 
While the particular objectives of that operation do not get into 
labor handling and labor relations, nevertheless those questions 
are highly important to the success of the other operations. The 
industries which have gotten together in cooperation with the 
C.E.D. in more than 1700 communities might also get together 
in each community on this question of labor relations. 

Broader and larger than company or plant loyalty is com¬ 
munity loyalty. A feeling of oneness in a community is one of the 
finest foundations for sound progress and constructive devel¬ 
opment. 

By cooperating throughout the community as a whole, man¬ 
agement can well raise the level of understanding, morale and 
cooperation on the part of the workers. As will nothing else, 
this will give the worker a feeling that management and indus¬ 
try as a whole are interested in them and working for the benefit 
of the community as a whole. 

In some communities where such activities are being carried 
on, there has arisen a very serious problem. This is the case of 
plants under absentee ownership. There are sometimes branch 
factories of considerable size employing thousands of men, but 
which are controlled from a distant headquarters city. In some 
cases the management of the branch plant either has no author¬ 
ity or is not interested in a good worker morale and labor situa¬ 
tion. We have seen situations where this exists and where the 
very bad and bitter feeling on the part of the workers in those 
absentee plants has affected the attitude of workers in other 
plants, and in fact, the attitude within the entire community. It 
does not take many drops of arsenic in a glass of water to be fatal. 

Sometimes the managements of these branch plants can be 
brought into line by the managements of the other plants in the 
city. In other cases the situation can be corrected only in rela- 


THE COMMUNITY JOB 


7 1 

tion to the headquarters city, and sometimes not there. It is a 
serious problem and mentioned here for the attention of those 
large companies which have branch plants. They should be 
very certain as to the operations in those plants and the capa¬ 
bility of the management of those plants in regard to relations 
with the workers. They should be sure that the managements 
of those branch plants understand the company’s policies for 
worker cooperation and are doing what must be done to carry 
them out. 

Community organization is of tremendous importance in this 
community effect, and also in relation to the opportunity for 
developing, on common ground and among all plants, the best 
that each of them has to suggest. In such a getting-together, 
problems which are common to all can far better be solved than 
by individual management. And for their own particular prob¬ 
lems individual management may find ideas through what has 
been done in other plants within the community. 

Such a community operation develops not only community 
understanding and the advantage of interchange of ideas and 
discussion of common problems. It also makes possible the de¬ 
velopment of a real and constructive program for the city as a 
whole, involving the public at large and the community. For 
after all, the workers in the factories live in that community, 
and the better the community the better the worker. There can 
be spread the best ideas and programs so that everything reason¬ 
able and possible can be done both within the plants and in the 
city as a whole, whether in regard to civic operations, education 
or the multitude of other problems which are of just as vital 
interest to plant management as to anyone in town. 

With this there can be developed sound and constructive pub¬ 
licity. Such publicity indicates that everyone is getting together, 
that managements of all the plants are interested in the city and 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


72 

in what makes the city a good place to live in. This publicity, if 
handled rightly, can redound to the benefit of the plants in the 
greater contentment and satisfaction of their workers. 

Of course, any publicity along this line must be handled just as 
soundly as the public relations of the individual plant with its 
own workers. In other words, we must repeat that it must be 
handled from the point of view of interest of the average man. 

In one city where something of this very sort has been carried 
on for a year and a half, a leading industrialist asked the question 
as to why the workers in the factories did not seem to know more 
about it. There were two reasons. 

First, I asked him whether he reads the Fashion Notes in his 
newspaper, because the way this publicity was put out was of 
no more interest to the average worker than the Fashion Notes 
are to him. 

The second reason was that the workers themselves had not 
been brought into it. They were not a part of the program. 

Sometimes it is a shock to management to know how little of 
the publicity which they have put out has gotten across to the 
workers. An outstanding example of this was revealed in the 
recent poll of more than 80,000 workers in the Portland, Oregon 
area. To help provide post-war jobs Portland is planning a tre¬ 
mendous 75 million dollar public works project. There has been 
a lot about it in local publications, but Portland civic leaders 
and management got a shock when they found that half of the 
workers had never even heard of the project. 

Such community association or activity should include manu¬ 
facturing, retailing, other businesses, civic and religious leaders, 
educators, leaders in the fraternal organizations, and not least, 
representatives of labor and the unions. 

Such an organization is not easy to set up and not easy to carry 
on, but if the right man or men are selected to head it up and if 


THE COMMUNITY JOB 


73 

they have a real interest in the people and an understanding o£ 
what should be done, they can do as outstanding a job as has been 
seen in one or two communities. 

Community organization does not refer to membership only 
in Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce. These activities are 
excellent and worth while, but there is one serious weakness 
in those and others like them. 

That is the fact that the workers are not represented in those 
organizations as a rule. One reason, and a primary one, for the 
lack of success in many of the energetic activities undertaken in 
communities in various cities is this one fact that the workers are 
not participants. 

When we refer to workers we do not mean solely the heads of 
the unions. 

In many cities there are considerable groups of workers who 
are not members of unions. These may be in manufacturing or 
in retailing or in other worker activities. 

Certainly the heads of important labor organizations should 
be included in community activities. There also should be in¬ 
cluded some of the workers themselves, rather than their paid 
representatives alone. 

Only if the workers are included in these activities can the 
workers feel that they are a part of it all. That is the one thing 
which has been emphasized again and again — that the workers 
feel they are not considered a part — that they are merely pawns 
or tools. How can they be expected to feel they are part of the 
community activities unless they participate in those activities 
with management, civic leaders and the others? 

Many executives say that they cannot give time to community 
activities. May we wonder whether they can afford not to give 
that time? 

Recently at an executive conference on public relations in 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


74 

Indianapolis, one of the leading industrialists of the Midwest 
stated emphatically that the head of any company must afford 
to give up to one-quarter of his time or more to community and 
other cooperative activities. He was emphatic in his statement 
that the heads of industry could afford to do no less. 

If they do less, they certainly are not in a position to criticize 
the conditions which arise or actions which are taken. 


XVI 

THE NATIONAL JOB 


The work to be done nationally for better understanding be¬ 
tween industry and the workers is the third area. Much is being 
done in this area, some of it wisely and some most unwisely. 
Much more is being discussed and attempted. 

The most important thing which must be developed on the 
national scale is confidence in industry. As we have seen, the 
workers as a whole today lack confidence in industry. A consid¬ 
erable number of them have a definite distrust of industry as 
such. They call it ‘capital’. The fundamental task is that of 
building up confidence in industry. 

With that must be given to the men a clear and simple and 
fundamentally elemental understanding of the economics of free 
enterprise or, better, private enterprise. This can be done, and it 
is not too difficult to do if it is approached properly. 

In any case the approach must be based upon a clear and 
straightforward understanding of the beliefs and attitudes which 
now exist among the workers. There has been too much tilting at 
windmills on the part of industry. And on the other hand, too 
much propaganda put out in such clouds of confusion that the 
sun of truth and understanding has been unable to penetrate it. 

The first and most difficult job before industry is to have con¬ 
fidence in itself; not in its power, in its strength, in its dollars, 
and in its smartness, but confidence in its own sincerity and in¬ 
tegrity and understanding. Confidence in the belief that industry 
is really interested in the welfare, progress, and development of 
the standards of the workers. Confidence that this is not an ex¬ 
pression for public consumption, but a real belief. 

That is industry’s starting point. 

There is a great deal of talk about pressure groups. It is well to 


75 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


76 

remember that the workers are just as conscious of the prevalence 
of pressure groups and just as fearful of them as is industry. In 
the minds of the workers many of the associations of industry 
and capital are pressure groups, intent and interested only in 
furthering their own fortunes at the expense of any and all others 
who may stand in their way. 

It is unfortunate that this attitude exists. There have been 
justifications for it. There are reasons to believe that that attitude 
is less justified today, and in many instances not at all justified. 

But the things which make the workers feel it is still justified 
are the methods of approach of industry to these questions. 
Because industry is still talking, even to the public and to the 
workers, from the viewpoint of its own understanding and 
interest. Industry and some of the leading associations of indus¬ 
trialists and capitalists are still spending most of their time and 
effort talking to one another and telling themselves and each 
other how fine they are. 

There is a tremendous educational job to be done in giving 
understanding to the workers. Some of this can be well done by 
group and organized effort on the part of industry and some is 
being well done. 

Regardless of how well done that may be, there is a tremendous 
opportunity and obligation for individual companies to intensify 
and strengthen that effort. 

It has been pointed out in an earlier book that to the workers 
the individual company has much more reality than an associa¬ 
tion of any sort. To them the company is a concrete and definite 
entity. It is not something nebulous and perhaps fearsome as may 
be an “association” in their minds. 

So a message from these companies carries a card of intro¬ 
duction and confidence which is not apt to exist in relation to any 
generalized publicity or propaganda. 


THE NATIONAL JOB 


77 

The greatest opportunity for conveying understanding to the 
workers lies within the hands and the power of the individual 
company. It’s the obligation. It is not something which the com¬ 
pany can or dares pass along completely to an association or leave 
to anyone else. 

These workers are the majority of the buyers, the purchasers 
of the greater proportion of all consumer goods. As such, the 
manufacturer looks to them and wants to persuade and con¬ 
vince them in regard to his products. 

It is even more essential in the long run that he do his part in 
persuading and convincing them as to the desirability of his 
method of doing business. 

While the message of the individual manufacturer carries 
weight wherever his name is known, it carries double weight 
among his own employees in his own plant. They are further 
impressed when they see those messages going throughout the 
country to workers everywhere. 

Not long since, the head of one large company said that it was 
of course impossible to give all of their workers an understand¬ 
ing of economics. Of course it was impossible for him to do so, 
because he lacked understanding of what it is all about and what 
has to be done. 

On the contrary, it is simple and can be simply done. 

How the workers have reacted to simple business stories has 
been told in a previous book. How they themselves have pointed 
up the moral without having it shown or even indicated to them. 
How they have said, “Gee, and think of all the jobs that made.” 

But at the same time it would not be wise for the individual 
manufacturer to do very much of the type of advertising which 
is devoted exclusively to what might be called ‘propaganda’. It 
just won’t get across. They won’t read it and they won’t believe 
it if they do read it, because the manufacturer might as well 


78 WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 

write across it in big red letters the word propaganda. The work¬ 
ers will say to themselves and to one another, ‘what is he trying 
to put over now?’ 


XVII 

INTERESTING THE WORKERS 


As every manufacturer knows and was pointed out in “The 
Destiny of Free Enterprise,” there can be no high levels of pro¬ 
duction and employment unless the products of industry are 
bought by the workers. They receive the biggest share of the 
national income. In their hands is a major share of the accumu¬ 
lated savings of these war years. 

The biggest job before your advertising is to sell the workers, 
to sell them on the desirability and value to them of the products 
you have to sell them now or will have to sell them after the war. 

The workers are very fed up, they say, with advertising which 
boasts of how important is the company to the winning of the 
war; advertising which tells how the battles are being won by 
the products of The Wonderful Widget Company. They are not 
too impressed with such advertising even of their own company. 
“Hell”, they say, “that’s what the company is supposed to do. 
Sure our products are good, we fellows make ’em that way. And 
other guys are doing the same.” 

These workers are very anxious to know what they will be 
able to buy. They tell us that they are fed up with dreams of 
products that they know will not be available for years after the 
war. They are anxious to know to what extent they will be able 
to buy the kind of things they want to buy and what kind of 
things they should want to buy with their savings. 

These things are in their minds only from the standpoint of 
satisfaction of their own personal wants, of their desire for better 
things and better standards. During the war years they have 
become accustomed to better quality in many things. For the first 
time they have been able to afford it. They intend to continue 
buying better quality as far as they can, and to get better quality 


79 


8 o 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


in the types of things which have not been available during the 
war years. 

They are interested in seeing advertising of products and get¬ 
ting sound information as to what kind of things they really will 
be able to buy after the war. They tell us that they have seen very 
little advertising about new kinds of furnishings, home equip¬ 
ment and the like. They have seen very little to tell them what 
such things they will find available when we get back into pro¬ 
duction of civilian goods. They would like to see those things 
and know about them. 

There is fertile ground for the essential product advertising 
which must be extensive and intensive if they are to be stim¬ 
ulated to that buying which is essential for high levels of pro¬ 
duction and employment. 

But that is only because they want these things. It has not yet 
been explained to them clearly that only if they spend their 
money will there be employment for themselves and others. 

Levels of high employment after the war can be maintained 
only if the levels of sales are high. That is so obvious it seems 
silly to state it. However, it leads to a further definite statement 
which is sometimes overlooked, That is, that sales come primarily 
from the mass of the public. Unless the public as a whole buys 
liberally of the goods and services which are available, not only 
will the sales of consumer goods be low, but also of the capital 
goods which go into production. 

So advertising has ahead of it in the post-war years the biggest 
job which it has ever faced. It is the job of producing and main¬ 
taining a level of sales such as this country has never seen. 

It is a question solely of creating desire and willingness to 
spend, because the public as a whole has the money to spend. 
The accumulated savings at the end of 1944 will probably be in 
the neighborhood of 135 billion dollars. Two-thirds of this will 


INTERESTING THE WORKERS 


81 


be in the hands of the middle and lower income groups as we 
have known them in the past. (Today they are not, in many 
cases, in the lower income groups.) 

But if these people who have this spendable money fear a high 
degree of unemployment and uncertainty they will hesitate to 
spend it. They will even hesitate to spend liberally of current 
earnings if they fear that they may have to dip into their savings 
for maintenance. 

So advertising has this tremendous job of stimulating buying 
as soon as goods are available. Only in that way can there be any¬ 
where near full employment. That is the vast job which adver¬ 
tising has to do — the biggest job which has ever faced it in the 
history of this country. 

The tremendous job ahead of advertising was indicated in 
the comments of Dr. Amos E. Taylor, Director of the Bureau 
of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of the Department of Com¬ 
merce, in a speech recently delivered before the Associated Gen¬ 
eral Contractors of Minnesota. 

“A peacetime level of production which approaches the capac¬ 
ity of available manpower after the war means a substantial 
increase over prewar living standards,” Dr. Taylor declared. “To 
reach this higher standard of living, people must be persuaded to 
buy more things than they ever had before. 

“This is a challenge to business enterprise. It calls for better 
marketing analysis, more imagination and ingenuity in develop¬ 
ing new products or new markets for old ones, more strenuous 
efforts to improve promotion and distribution methods. 

“The increase in living standards does not mean a uniform 
increase over the prewar volume of business with the same prod¬ 
ucts sold through the same distribution channels to the same in¬ 
come groups. Entirely aside from technological developments, 
such a large increase in consumer buying power would in itself 


82 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


create potential markets that would differ from prewar condi¬ 
tions in many other respects than mere size.” 

The point that we cannot go back to conditions of a previous 
period was also indicated by Dr. Taylor when he said, Our 
national industrial society is exceedingly dynamic and we must 
understand it in the light of its manifold changes. It is changing 
in the organization of men and materials into industries, in the 
general scheme of direction and control, and in the habits, cus¬ 
toms and modes of thought which lie at the basis of all activity. 

So the type of advertising which will attract the interest and 
attention of the workers is product advertising - advertising of 
products and services. They will read such advertising with inter¬ 
est if it is placed where they can read it, if it is placed in the media 
which have their confidence. 

And in such advertising is the opportunity for the manufac¬ 
turer to give information and understanding on these simple 
economic principles. They can be an integral and constructive 
part of that advertising. 

As part of such product advertising, those ideas will sound 
logical and sensible. They will be understandable and under¬ 
stood. They will carry the sincerity and personality of the indi¬ 
vidual manufacturer and his brand name. They will be a mes¬ 
sage from a friend in a friendly environment. They will not be 
presented as sermons or propaganda. 

The development of this medium of understanding will be 
carried on in the succeeding pages. It is so important and so little 
has been done about it that it will be treated to the exclusion of 
the other and more general types of public relations work. It is 
more direct and possibly more important. There is little doubt 
that an understanding of the interests and reactions of the work 
ers will indicate that it is apt to be much more resultful and 
beneficial. 


XVIII 

THE BETTER WAY 

In addition to selling goods and maintaining trademarks and 
brands, can your advertising do this second job at the same time? 
And at no additional cost, beyond a little thought and effort? 

Can product advertising do the job of selling free enterprise, 
freedom of choice, brands as against grade labelling and the 
other ideas and ideologies on which industry is so anxious right 
now to supply sound information to the workers? 

We believe that that job can be done better as a part of prod¬ 
uct advertising than it can be done by separate campaigns or 
public relations activities. We believe it can most effectively sup¬ 
plement the work being undertaken by the National Association 
of Manufacturers and the National Industry Information Com¬ 
mittee and other groups. 

It can do this job most effectively because — let us be frank 
about it — an “association” does not carry weight as such with 
the factory worker. If he knows of that organization at all it is apt 
to be unfavorably, because of what he has heard about it and what 
he has been told about it in his union newspapers. 

But on the other hand, a branded product is an old friend. 
He knows Ford, Chevrolet and Plymouth. He knows Ivory Soap 
and Lux and Camay, Palmolive and Swan. He knows RCA, 
G. E., Philco and the rest. To the wage earner and his family those 
are real people. Maybe they live right in his home. He will listen 
to what they have to say. 

There is a vast job to be done by industry, in disseminating 
sound information — correcting unsound ideas — and it can best 
be done as a part of your regular advertising messages. 

By such advertising individual companies can tell this impor¬ 
tant story to that group of people whose influence and votes will 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


84 

dominate during the years to come. It is time to stop simply 
telling it to each other. 

At this point there might be well set up here a basic rule for 
the selection of media for such advertising. Here it is: The presi¬ 
dent or other major executive of the company should list those 
media (magazines, radio programs, newspapers, etc., etc.) which 
appeal most to himself, his family and associates. 

The resulting list will give those media which are not to be 
used to reach the workers. 

Many of them do reach some of the workers — a few. But 
the very fact that they appeal so strongly to the president, his 
family and friends, proves that they could not appeal basically 
or broadly to the wage earners. Part of the gap in understanding 
between workers and management is due to the wide differences 
in their respective cultural, social and economic background. 

To do effectively the concentrated job which lies before man¬ 
agement, the effective method is by use of those media of contact 
which are primarily, at least, directed to the workers. 

In such media the manufacturer should be as frank and 
straightforward as he would like others to be to him. He should 
not depend on so-called publicity. In this area of activity pub¬ 
licity seldom rings true. Even if it is true it usually fails to 
impress or convince the workers. 

Furthermore, publicity is of course subject to editing or crit¬ 
icism by the editor of the newspaper, magazine, or other media 
in which it may be used. Hence it is quite likely to reach the 
worker in a different form or with a different effect from that 
intended. 

On the other hand, the manufacturer’s advertising appears 
exactly as he plans it and prepares it. It is furthermore accepted 
by the worker as a direct message from a definite, known, and 
responsible company. He may not agree with all that the adver- 


THE BETTER WAY 


85 

tising says, but he knows that it is a direct, responsible and un¬ 
colored message and that it carries the prestige of a known name, 
signature or trade mark. 

What will attract the worker to the advertising? He will be 
attracted by that which appeals to his interest. 

He will not be attracted by propaganda, by sermons, by an 
obvious effort on the part of industry to sell him a different 
ideology. 

He is interested, as has been stated, in the things which make 
his life better, which give him a better standard of living, the 
kind of things that he would like to own and have and use and 
eat and wear. 

And it is the very manufacturer of these things who has that 
message of ideas and ideology to convey to the worker. So let that 
message be inserted in a fitting and suitable place in the product 
advertising. The job is to get over to the workers sound and con¬ 
structive understanding in terms of their own interest on the 
subjects of free enterprise, profits, post-war planning and all the 
rest in which their interest has been indicated in earlier pages. 

Some specific suggestions as to how some of these ideas may 
be presented in your product advertising have been prepared 
and are given in the pages which follow. In each case there is 
suggested the reason for the particular suggestion. Then there is 
given a suggested piece of concise copy to be included at a proper 
point in your product advertising. This may either be a part of 
the main body of copy if it fits in there, or it may be inserted as 
a separate paragraph or box if that is more suitable. 

Many of these thoughts may not be new to the reader of this 
book. He may, and probably will, find much better ways to ex¬ 
press these same thoughts. 

But the purpose of these suggestions is to offer something con¬ 
crete and specific in the hope that an increasing number of ad- 


86 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


vertisers will put such material in their advertising — whether 
they have products to sell or are advertising at the present time to 
maintain their trademarks and their company name and good 
will. 

Some of these suggestions have been made to a few leading 
national advertisers who are interested in this subject of labor- 
employee relations. Because of their enthusiastic response and 
desire for further suggestions of this sort that material is being 
embodied in this book. 

There may well be better and other ways of expression. The 
sole purpose of these suggestions is to stimulate industry to the 
use of this most effective means of conveying information to the 
great body of the workers. 


Alow readily such suggestions as are offered 
in the following pages will fit into current 
advertising is shown by specific illustrations. 

On each left-hand page is a suggestion of 
brief copy, preceding which is given the reason 
why such a thought needs expression and re¬ 
iteration. On the right-hand pages have been 
reproduced some of the outstanding adver¬ 
tisements in different fields as they have ap¬ 
peared in current magazines. 

It will readily be seen how easily and har¬ 
moniously ideas such as those suggested could 
be fitted into the advertising. 


87 


88 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


Uppermost in the minds of the workers is the ques¬ 
tion as to jobs after the war. You probably cannot 
make definite promise of jobs for all of the people 
now working in your plants, nor make promises of 
jobs for all the returning soldiers. 

But you do know that the more of your prod¬ 
ucts you sell, the more jobs there will be in your 
factories. Buying makes jobs, and most of the buy¬ 
ers of most products must of necessity be the 
workers. So you can well say something like this 
in your advertisements — 


When you buy a Stromberg-Carlson after the war, that 
will help make a job for someone who will then be able 
to buy the things you make. 




Private Perkins has 


Hb wanted to share his dream with Joe ... but he was afraid Joe would think him soft. 

Joe would laugh if he told him how he loved music . . . how some day he was 
going to sit for a week, just listening to music . .. 

Joe wouldn’t get it... so he kept it to himself. And when Joe asked him what he 
was thinking about, he said . . . "A blonde in Peoria” ... and Joe nodded approvingly. 


some private plans 


To pboplb who lovb it ... fine music is one of life’s richest experiences. 



IT WAS PEOPLE, working for Victory, that won 
Stromberg-Carlson the Army-Navy "E” ... To 
these men and women, and to our men in the 
Armed Forces, we have a responsibility. We must 
assure them good jobs when peace comes ... We 
must plan ahead today. That is the important reason 
for planning fine radios for you ... It's the impor¬ 
tant reason for all post-war planning. 


It is to those people we wish to speak ... for tomorrow when our war job is done, we 
will bring them a Stromberg-Carlson radio that will rival the concert hall itself in 
purity and perfection of tone. 

Into this instrument will go fifty years of craftsmanship ... the skih that made 
Stromberg-Carlson the leader in FM radio ... plus many new wartime developments. 

When you hear what this means in truly fine music ... we believe you’ll agree 
it was worth waiting for . . . worth saving for in 
War Bonds and Stamps. 


IN RADIOS, TELEPHONES, SOUND SYSTEMS... 
THERE 1$ NOTHING FINER THAN A 

STROMBERG-CARLSON 

A HAlF-CFNfUkY OP FINt CkAFTSMANSMIP 









9 ° 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


The workers have heard little to convince them 
that industry is concerned with, or planning for 
the post-war period in relation to jobs. In no way 
can they be better or more convincingly told that 
industry — ‘capital’ — is concerned about post-war 
than in your advertising — 


All of the people employed in our factories are wholly 
concerned at this time with doing their part toward 
winning the war quickly. But they also know that the 
company is planning to improve Servel products and 
sell more of them than ever before, when the war job 
is done. They are as confident for the future as they are 
of winning the war. 



Add three Millands to your list of enthusiastic Servel owners” 



Mr. and Mrs. Milland say their Servel Gas Refrigerator 
is so quiet, they’d almost forgotten about it until we 
asked questions. “It just sits there,” says Ray, “and 
keeps things cold, and never causes a moment’s trouble.” 


Two million families are glad they own Servels today, 
when repair men are hard to find. Servel, the Gas Refrig¬ 
erator, is different —it has no moving parts in its freezing 
system to wear out, break down, or become noisy. 



Those two Milland fan* are Servel war workers. 
Today our factory is 100 per cent at work for the war. 
We have made some refrigerators since Pearl Harbor 
— but the Army and Navy needed them all. After the 
war we’ll be making more Servels—and even better¬ 
looking ones, too! We hope you’ll want to own one. 



We'll make homes more comfortable, too . . . with 
the Servel All-Year Gas Air Conditioner. It will heat 
homes in Winter, cool them in Summer — keep proper 
humidity all year round. Perfected before the war, 
these systems are already on test in hundreds of 
homes across America ., . and doing fine. 



The Gas Refrigerator that “stays silent—lasts 
longer” was first introduced through your Gas Com¬ 
pany. And that’s where new Servel products will 
be announced. Buy War Bonds and Stamps today 
so that you can modernize your home in the future. 
Your Gas Company will be glad to help you plan. 





92 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


Another approach to the question of jobs might 
be handled something in this manner — 


When you buy the things you want after the war, such 
as a new Westinghouse appliance, you have the added 
satisfaction of knowing that the more you can buy the 
more jobs you are helping to make. For jobs make 
prosperity for us all. 






Promise ! Dad's shirts, 
the baby’s rompers, the 
ruffled curtains in the din¬ 
ing room . . . everything 
. . . will be unbelievably 
easy to iron on your brand- 
new Westinghouse Irnner. 


Prom ise ! Less time 
at the sink, and more 
time for yourself. Your 
loveliest crystal, your 
choicest silver, your fa¬ 
vorite china, will all be 
washed safely and well 
in your new Westinghouse 
electric Dishwasher. 


Promise ! Even 
mother can stay put 
at the table when 
your good - looking 
new Westinghouse 
Automatic Toaster 
and Coffee Maker 
take over getting 
breakfast. What fun! 


Promise! Dinner cooked on the porch 
. . . breakfast by the window! Hot food 
on a picnic! Your new Westinghouse 
Roaster will be so versatile and efficient 
you can cook anything in it, and carry 
it anywhere. The meals are delicious! 


Promise ! Raspberries in January! A pheasant 
dinner in June! . . . thanks to the new frozen 
foods. And your new Westinghouse electric 
Refrigerator will have a special place to store them. 


Promise! Your new 
Westinghouse electric 
Range will be so com¬ 
pletely automatic you 
can put a meal in to 
cook . . . and forget it! 


pre-war Westinghouse 
home appliances 
are your 

postwar promise of 
still finer ones to come 






‘ 


C ALL it EXPERIENCE, call it know-how, call it what you like ... no one can 
turn out 30 million of anything without acquiring a lot of firsthand 
information on what makes it work, and why. That’s but one plus advan¬ 
tage the engineers, designers and home economists of Westinghouse will 
have when they go back to making all the fine postwar electric appliances 
you want for your home. Meantime, they’re putting everything they know 
into today’s job of turning out essential materials to help win the war. 

WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC & MANUFACTURING CO„ MANSFIELD, OHIO 

Tune in: John Charles Thomas • Sunday 2:30 EWT., N.B.C. 

"Top of the Evening " • Mon. Wed. Fri. 10:13 EWT^ Blue Network 





















94 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


Sometimes a single short sentence is all there is 
place for in an advertisement, and it can say a 
great deal by a few words in the right direction — 
words that fit in with the message of the advertise¬ 
ment. Like this — 


The money you save now will, after the war, buy for 
you the things you want — and help make jobs for 
everyone . 









WELL. ANN. I guess this is tt. 

Fiftv-two minutes from now. I’ll be report¬ 
ing in to Uncle Sam. And for the first time 
since we've been married. I won t be taking 
the 5:40 home. 

If it weren't for leaving you and our sons. 
Ann. I’d be really happy Not even you guessed 
how helpless I felt when I first tried to enlist 
and everybody kept turning me down. 

Now that I’m finally going, promise not to 
let it make too much difference, will you ■* 

I'd like to think things will go along almost 
the way they did before. 

Keep right on wearing these cute flowered 
jobs in the morning, even if I m not here to 
see them. Spank the kids when they need it. 
and once m a while sit down and tell 'em 


about their dad m the Army. 

Get yourstlf a real dinner at night, not just 
a snack. Put a flower in your hair, and use 
our International Sterling. . . 

I'm glad I was able to get you that, at 
least. Ann. So many things have had to wait. 
But you were right, as usual, when you said 
really fine sterling like International was im¬ 
portant to people like us. 

Mavbe we were a little proud, to have other 
people see we owned “family silver. But 
more than that, it’s helped give a feeling of 
permanence and rightness to every place we've 
ever lived in. 

Does this sound like a speech, darling'* I 
just wanted you to know that I think our way 
has been a sw r ell way. And that I II be a bit 
better soldier, to know that it s waiting. 


International is working full speed on 
war production and making less sterling, so 
your jeweler may not have all the pieces 
you want. 

So buy more War Bonas with your money 
hurry victory.. .and the day when the good 
things of life will again be plentiful. 

Your International Sterling is worth wait¬ 
ing for International gives you the lifetime satis¬ 
faction of knowing . . 

_that your sterling was made by the world s 

foremost silver house . . 

_that \ our pattern was designed by Inter¬ 
national craftsmen whose predecessors were 
creating spoons of com silver 100 years ago... 

— that pieces created by these craftsmen have 
been exhibited in leading art museums. 


Copyright 1944, International 8ll»er Company 











96 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


The many companies engaged now largely or en¬ 
tirely in war production are, the workers believe, 
making tremendous profits. They think that these 
great profits are going into the pockets of manage¬ 
ment and stockholders — ‘capital’. 

The advertising of such companies is of neces¬ 
sity currently devoted to selling the desirability of 
their post-war products, or maintaining the brand 
and company good will. In such advertising there 
is a natural place to meet and kill this ‘excess 
profit’ idea. One way might be this — 


While taxes are talcing most of the profits from war 
production, a large part of what Uncle Sam leaves in 
our hands is being laid aside so that we may be able 
to deliver to you the General Motors car you want as 
soon as possible after the war. Plans are now being 
made to get into peacetime production quickly, by the 
use of those profits to cover costs of reconversion and 
pay the wages of our more than 400,000 employees 
during the period of getting G. M. products back on 
the market. 




“Here she comes! Gosh!”—“Bet she's hit¬ 
ting 120!” — “Talk about your streamlined 
horsepower! Wow!” 

Young America lined the tracks the sum¬ 
mer of 1934 when the Zephyr made its 
streaking, record-breaking run from Denver 
to Chicago. 

But years before this Diesel-engined train 
ushered in a new kind of railroading. 
General Motors men were working out the 
problems of this new motive power—com¬ 
pactness, limitations of size and weight, a 
new cylinder block, double the horse¬ 
power per cylinder. 

A new Diesel engine came into being that 
powers trains of many railroads all over the 
United States — with an over-all economy 
never before equaled. But there was never 
any idea of stopping, even with this power 
problem solved. 




In fact, every day for many years—up to and 
including today — General Motors men have 
been on a non-stop schedule of developing 
the Diesel engine. 

And when a mechanised war broke over us, 
a clamor for this compact economical power 
plant arose from those who saw its tremen¬ 
dous possibilities. 

Today, some of those same eleven-year-olds 
of 1934 who cheered the Diesel-powered 
Zephyr now listen to the smooth rush of 
thousands of horsepower in Diesel-powered 
submarines. Cruising in enemy waters close 
enough for a periscope view of Fujiyama, or 
chuffing home with a new broom of triumph 
lashed to the masthead 
— the Diesels are com¬ 
ing through in a big 
way in the “hush-hush” 


service, as well as in tanks, landing barges 
and all types of naval equipment. 

One of the reasons they were ready to come 
through was that in normal peacetime wofk 
General Motors men, seeking to provide 
more and better things for more people, had 
built up a backlog of experience in th^ir pro¬ 
duction. 

America is rich in such experience because 
here men have always received just rewards 
for undertaking new things. 

That is the idea that gave us the bountiful 
life we knew in prewar America. It has 
proved mighty useful in war. The same idea 
will keep on providing more and better 
things for more people in peace. 


General Motors 

"VICTORY IS OUR BUSINESS" 



★ 

Buy War Bonds 


Every Sunday Afternoon-GENERAL MOTORS SYMPHONY OF THE AIR —NBC Netuork 


CHF.VROl.ET . PONTIAC • OLOSMOB1IJC • BIJICK • CADILLAC 
BODY BY KISHEK • KHICIDAIRE • CMC TRUCK AND COACH 


KEEP 
AMERICA STRONG 










98 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


The workers believe that they get only a small 
share of the price of the things that are sold. They 
think that most of the money goes to ‘capital’ and 
‘the big bosses’. With that, they often feel that 
the prices charged for the things they buy are very 
high, much higher than is justified. Yet wages are 
the biggest part of the cost of most products and 
of the materials that go into them. 

This can be simply told as part of the advertise¬ 
ment of your product, perhaps like this — 


Most of the price you will pay for Duraglas goes to the 
people who work in our factories and those who make 
the materials we buy, over 84% of it. The profit is 
small, for out of the rest must come taxes, salaries and 
other expenses. 



• • • 


G)H)vs. C FW Stfrufc 

wife of the novelist who created Nero Wolfe, and famous in her 
own right as Pola Stout, one of America’s top textile designers, says 

I have everything in glass that I possibly can 



for nothing brightens a room or makes a closet look so clean 
and modern as glass does'* 


"High Meadow” the Stouts’ modern 
house near Brewster, New York, is one of 
the most interesting in the East. And the 
closets of this talented designer are full 
of novel color and design ideas. Here are 
sketches of Pola Stout’s vivid, sparkling, 
orderly closets. They’re worth your study. 


M We do a lot of the housework ourselves— 
with our daughters Rebecca and Barbara 
to help,”she says,"so everything is planned 
to make it simple—and fun!” Notice how 
she puts every inch of space to work—and 
bow the gleaming glass containers let you 
see, at one quick glance, what’s there. 



Sptc-Spaib Closet (hat almost keeps itself tidy. 

I like to buy eleausers and polish** in glass because glass 
is so easy to'pour from aud wipe clean after using." says 
Mrs. Stout. "And 1 always know bow much of each 1 have.” 



GKoSCfc—decorative as a mural, with foods in sparkling glass. Shelves, built to fit tall or 
short containers, make neatness easv. Curtains and shelf-cov erings are one of Pola Stout’s own fabric designs.' I'm 
uaturallv thriftvsavs Mrs. Stout, "and tbeu I like to see the quantity and texture of fruit. That's why I buy in glass.” 



Ote^i^jeAofcyi/' its 

savs Mrs. Mont. "I take oi 


:*s so easv to kerp fo»vd in glass,” 
■ out what l need and put the 
container in the refrigerator, (’.lass jars take up less room 
thau dishes, and left-overs stay in perfect condition.” 



'Bat/i Sfudues have private reservations for 
v oung Rebecca and Barbara. Little outside shelves hold 
M rs. Stout’s hath accessories. In the closet, glass bottles 
protect the medicines, make them easy to find and use. 



OWENS-ILLINOIS GLASS COMPANY, TOLEDO, OHIO 
MAKERS OF CONTAINERS THAT GIVE A 


TUNf M "Broadway Matinee” with Alfred Drake, star 
of the Theatre Guild’s musical hit, "Oklahoma!” Mon¬ 
day* through Fridays, CBS, 4 P.M. Eastern War Time. 


LIFT TO LIVING 





























100 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


The newspapers report the profits of many com¬ 
panies, some of them in the hundreds of millions 
of dollars. These profits are emphasized by many 
types of propaganda publications. The result is 
that your workers think the company is making 
outrageous profits, and the public thinks that you 
are charging too much for your products. You can 
meet both in your advertising — 


We believe in making Armour foods available to you 
at the lowest possible cost, consistent with use of the 
finest materials and payment of fair wages to our 
workers. Only 1.3% of our selling price goes to the 
45,000 people who have put up the money for all the 
modern plant and equipment necessary to produce 
them. 





You can get these favorite Armour meals- 
in-a-tin again! Star Corned Beef Hash and 
Star Chile Con Carne are now at your 
store, ready to help you solve many of 
your food problems. 

Besides being deliciously satisfying, 
these wonderful time savers are low in 
points! Real ration savers! 

And look how convenient! Any time 
you open a tin and just heat and serve 
one of these ready-to-eat meat meals, your 
family will say: “Mmm . . . that’s swell!’’ 
For both Star Corned Beef Hash and Star 
Chile Con Carne are made the famous 
Armour way with fine, rich-tasting Armour 
meat. 

So restock your kitchen shelves! Keep 
a tin or two of each on hand all of the 
time for fine-tasting, quick meals. 










Cot' 


Cdf* 1 ® 


CON . 

mm •«*** 




%^4rmour 
and Company 

Makers of Star Ham and Bacon, Star Beef, Veal and Lamb, 


Armour's Star Cor nod Boof Hasn with 
Eggs baked in casserole I Hearty, 
and a great favorite I 


Armour's Star Chile Con Came 
is seasoned just right I 


Buy U. S. War Bonds and Stamps 


© ARMOUR AND COMPANY 


Star Sausages, Star Canned Meats, Cloverbloom Poultry and 
Dairy Products 





102 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


One way to combat the idea that all companies are 
making excessive profits on war production is 
this — 


As far as can be done without interfering with war 
production, we are plowing back our profits into ex¬ 
perimenting, development work, new engineering, pro¬ 
duction methods, designs for new equipment — all of 
which will mean that after the war, you will find your 
railroad service better than ever before. < 




2 


a 


IP 




mm 




What's around -the &end f 7 


W 11 AT kind of locomotives will pull 
the streamliners you ride on tomor¬ 
row? Steam, Diesel or Electric? 

The answer is: all three kinds. For 
modern railroading demands that loco¬ 
motives he designed for specific duties. 

Actually, any one of the three types can 
he huilt to pull any train at any desired 
speed. Each has certain advantages over 
the other two only under certain condi¬ 
tions—which type is host depends on the 
nature of the territory to be served, the 


kind and amount of load to be hauled, 
and many other factors. 

That is why American Locomotive 
builds all three types. A hundred years 
of experience has taught us the value of 
versatility. First we analyze a railroad’s 
requirements, then build the locomotive 
that meets them best. 

Today, a large percentage of America’s 
crack passenger and freight trains are 
pulled by American Locomotive engines 
—some steam, some Diesel, some electric. 


Each is unsurpassed at its particular job be¬ 
cause each was built for that particular job. 
















104 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


The workers want to feel that they are a part, an 
important part, of industry. This can be easily and 
simply demonstrated to them in your product ad¬ 
vertising, while at the same time showing the part 
played by capital investment; that labor and capi¬ 
tal work together, each is essential to the other — 


Ivory Soap is the product of over 14,000 men and 
women working together in our factories and using 
the buildings, machinery and equipment paid for by 
42,000 stockholders. 





Corporal sa y7ao' Th 7?r barracI « 
18 w l>at he goes for- th^ * Iv0ry Lo ° 

complexion she wanted ® moother - veh 
wonder Winnie's and won ' No 
my one *»• only £“« on anc 


^^^ ex T uke 

^ore’n anyt hing , » ^lorom? 

Wet babV- aby . sbeau tV, 

^^yaecret. Listen.-- 

> is no notary 


2 ‘vJVlZ/W/ I&KSb faoJWJlA TYU^- & uxxty SwMZ 

_regular, gentle cleansings with pure, mild 

Ivory Soap. My doctor backed Mommy up 
on that! He told Winnie why my Ivory’s 
so good for grown-up girls’ complexions . . . 
"It has no coloring, medication or strong 
perfume that might be irritating. 




/4 $\XaA& 

bccuiXu. 

AecAztb! 




unt$C 


Td y^oxsu JUctb-\£ 

o&stK* kAxt^xdU ! 






io6 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


There can be got over in your copy the thought 
that your products are the output, not of a vague 
corporation, but of people. There can at the same 
time be stimulated pride in production among 
your own employes as they read your advertise¬ 
ment — 


R. C. A. products have to be good. Back of them are 
42,000 men and women for whom there can continue 
to be jobs only by making them so good that you will 
want to buy them — and they are doing just that. 




the greatest radios and phonographs in RCA history 


T oday RCA radios and electronic equipment 
lioht oil world-wide battlefronts. At home, thou¬ 
sands enjoy the finest in radio-phonograph per¬ 
formance with RCA instruments liLe this one made 


before the war. Tomorrow RCA radios and phono¬ 
graphs, advanced by wartime research, will contrib¬ 
ute to the greater beauty and liner li\ing ol the 
American home. Alter the war. RCA will also bring 


to fulfillment the glories of television, plus die 
RCA -developed FM Radio Circuit. RCA leads llir 
way . . . in Radio . . . Television . . . Phonographs 
. . . Records . . . Tubes . . . Eleetrouics. 


RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA rca victor division . Camden, n i 
















io8 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


Under various guises a lot of people — some of 
them actually well meaning — are doing their best 
to eliminate the system under which there has 
been here in this country such progress as nowhere 
else in the world. The battle against our system of 
free enterprise is active and being pushed by fa¬ 
natical and clever people. Part of their scheme is 
centered in attacking and offering ‘something bet¬ 
ter than’ brand names. Let’s get the truth over to 
the people in simple terms of familiar things. Here 
is one way you might do it as a part of your regular 
advertisements — 


The names , the products you have learned to know 
will be the ones you can trust after the war job is done. 







OKA/- /'LL BE CHEERFUL 
ABOUT THE CA/VS / HAVE TO DO 
WITHOUT UNTIL THE WAR IS 


/?/VP ~T/FLLJAVg- /pr^: / 


Ihe convenience of the can is no secret 
to housewives. They know a good thing when 
they see it . . . from their own daily house¬ 
keeping experience. 

And now from every warfront come urgent 
calls for a bewildering variety of items packed 
in cans. For no other container provides 
such convenience . . . such sure and lasting 
protection ... as the can. 

Naturally, our Army and Navy get first 
call on the millions of cans made today. Ra¬ 
tions, first-aid kits, anti-tank mines, aircraft 
signals, fishing tackle for life rafts, gasoline, 
blood plasma, and drugs . . . these are but 
a few of the items packed in cans. Many 
others are military secrets. 

The can gets supplies where they’re 
needed . . . and it gets them there safely. 
That’s why the can is America’s number-one 
wartime container. No other container could 
stand up under crash landings, temperature 
extremes, repercussions from shell fire. It 
would be hard to exaggerate the part the 
can plays in helping to win this war. 

To ease the tremendous demand for cans, 
many familiar civilian products such as tooth 
and talcum powders, tobacco, paints, oils, 


anti-freeze are out of cans for the duration. 
But they’ll all be back—after victory. 

On the homefront, millions of cans are still 
used every day in the year. Remember to 
turn in your empty cans for salvage. The 
familiar “tin” can is actually more than 
98', o steel. .. less than 2% tin. Both of these 
metals are vital war material. Don’t keep 
them out of the fight. 

Can Manufacturers’ Institute, Inc., New York 


a/o eo/vr/r//V£* 


ALL THE THINGS THAT dfff 
COME IN CANS llff 


m 




2. M* TO tHiH MiGH J* 

:>:v rtiift.iniwiit*, > •*« S>« !*« rri 


s. yfiiB¥ Ht k mm mi® am 


■ ■ rn k^r V 

*ii»! 


fit. <RUU.m f\i- :• irwxt#>r& 
• iimn" *S 


r- ttxwwiiyl' 1 - 
•v. SW&OV 


WZ07EC75 £//<£ 7N£ 


,, Wk W 

A'pTe a ~ v'itto T if V Y'i, A. .. B F a A C F ' w* 
















1 10 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


Attacks on advertising have helped convince many 
workers that great sums spent in that way result in 
higher prices for what they buy and lower wages. 
Why not endeavor to do a double job in your 
advertising by selling the economics of advertising 
as well as the advantage of brand choice? There is 
a big job to be done in this area if we are to avoid 
more regimentation. 

One approach to the subject might be like the 
following; it should be brought out again and 
again in different ways — 


The purpose of this advertising is to give you informa¬ 
tion about Hotpoint products so that you can buy on 
knowledge, not guesswork. It is the most economical, 
as well as the most efficient way in which we can give 
you the information which will help you buy wisely and 
with satisfaction. 




C€14Z 




Y ES, it’s true! Your dream kitchen 
is almost a reality. That Hotpoint 
Electric Kitchen you and Jim have 
been saving War Bonds for will be 
priced so reasonably even modest 
incomes can afford one! 


And it’s going to be as practical as it 
is beautiful! For our engineers and 
designers know how to combine mod¬ 
ern utility and modern styling so that 
your new room will be not only a 
time-saver but a real joy in which to 
work and live! 



TWfmrcrwrr 


$££ FOR YOURSflF 
HOW THE HOTPOiNl KtTCHEN 
SERVES 5 TOU . 


FLUSH DOORS 


TWO‘SPEED 
BROILER UN.T 


INTERIOR ifc-HT 


AUTOMATIC mSHWfcSH^R 
WASHES, RINSES AND PRtfcS 
DISHES, ROTS AND RANSi 


GLARlI 


WATCH tP 
IfAttDWAftf 


wAMP 


ELECTRIC GARBAGE 
DISPOSALS. 


jlCE-MAKING AND 

Frozen storage 


WELL 


SINK 


ee/ee/ ttpt HPUlt 


zcseAfJeeeee yew deme ew SeAf /Aeve /eejA^A 


The cost of a Hotpoint Electric Kitchen 
averages about 10% of home-building costs. 

FOUR MAJOR CENTERS SIMPLIFY 
WORK IN THE HOTPOINT 
ELECTRIC KITCHEN 

Food Preservation Center — Hotpoint Electric 
Refrigerator keeps foods fresh longer — 
provides faster, thriftier freezing and bet¬ 
ter storage space. 

Food Preparation Center Hotpoint Electric 
Range, with all utensils stored within 
arm's length, cooks faster and thriftier. 
Since there's no combustion dirt, pans, 
walls stay clean. Automatic controls end 
cause of cooking failures. 

Sanitation Center - Hotpoint Electric Dish¬ 
washer, Sink and Disposall wash and dry 
dishes, pots and pans cleaner than ever 
without your hands touching water. Food 
waste is whisked away electrically. Space 
provided for soap, towels, etc. 

Equipment Storage Electrically lighted Hot¬ 
point Steel Cabinets afford abundant space 
for dishes, utensils and dry foods. 


Att, 


'■ au SHELVES 


' 

JttAlk . . 

QV$H TIMER > 
ANO-CLOCK j 

'! m&H speje 

| XAL*G%jti 

3 

gn 4 

fc-'-":. A.~ 




ROLLER 


STORAGE 


DRAWERS 


PAN STORAGE 


LSGHTEO AUTOMATIC OVEN 
SLIDING SHELVES 

‘-■'S',—--- 


'"N . 

f 

STORAGE 


TWO 

VEGETABLE 

CRiSPERS 


STAINLESS STEEL 

SLIDING SHELVES * V 




Hot point- KITCHENS 



wa« raooucnoM 


r 

i 

i 


Edison General Electric Appliance Co., Inc 

5660 West Taylor Street, Chicago, Illinois 

Enclosed please find ten cents in coin or war stamp lor which 

send me your new kitchen planning guide entitled, “Your 

Next Kitchen by Hotpoint." 


1 


I 

I 


Name 


| Address 


| City and State 
































112 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


The advantages of the system of private enterprise 
can be told in many ways, and can be fitted into 
many advertisements. Here is one suggestion — 


Great sums of money have been put into the develop¬ 
ment and improvement of Norge so that you may have 
the benefit of the finest product which can be made. 
The results have justified our faith that a small profit on 
many sales is better than a big profit on few. 



NORGE DEALERS 


a/ie lOcrtkCny 
tfot today 


All over the country Norge dealers are 
working for today by helping their 
customers through this difficult period 
when the purchase of new household 
appliances is restricted. They are 
preaching the doctrine of conserva¬ 
tion—of better care , less repair; sug¬ 
gesting ways and means of prolonging 
the life of valued equipment; and if 
repairs should be needed they are striv¬ 
ing, under difficult conditions, to give 
the same high type of service that has 
always characterized the Norge dealer. 



NORGE DEALERS 

a/ie fan 

tornoiAour 


Norge dealers of all types — depart¬ 
ment stores, furniture stores, hard¬ 
ware stores and home appliance shops 
—are planning for that great day when 
their showrooms will again be filled 
with new Norge washers, electric 
ranges, home heaters, gas ranges and 
Rollator refrigerators. These dealers 
are confident that when that time 
comes their many customers, mindful 
of the satisfactory service they have 
always received from product and 
dealer alike, will want to visit their 
stores to view the newest Norge 
products of experience. Old customers as 
well as new ones will find that their 
Norge dealer has something for them 
that was well worth waiting for—a 
line of products which, because of 
Norge’s wartime production experi¬ 
ence, is even better designed, better 
engineered and better built. 


NORGE, A BORG-WARNER INDUSTRY 

Norge is the trade-mark of Norge Division. Borg-Waraer Corporation, 
Octroii 26. Michigan. In Canada —Addison Industries, Inc., Toronto, Oot. 


When it’s over — see Norge 
before you boy... mean while 
BUY MORE WAR BONDS 

MMMMMtt AWM.MNC* COAMavMIO* MMM* 

' "Mine cACf-ues «»wur* 




commm 


wA$»«Rf mmmauktou 


atcrtie bammb 


SAB RAtmS 


NORGE 

HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES 











ii4 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


One means of selling America’s majority on the 
value to them of the system of private enterprise 
can be concisely covered in your advertisements, 
and as convincingly as in the learned and pon¬ 
derous tomes of the economists — 


Our soldiers are seeing for themselves how America 
leads the world in the things which make life com¬ 
fortable and worthwhile. Those conveniences and lux¬ 
uries are the product of American enterprise. The 
people of the Bell Telephone System pledge them¬ 
selves to continue in their job of supplying America with 
the most modern and finest service. 





of the telephone operator has been so important 
as right now. 


For there are more Long Distance calls than ever 
before. More are in a hurry, particularly the urgent 
calls of war. 

Calm in emergencies, capable and courteous, the 
telephone operators are earning a nation’s thanks 
for a job well done. 



BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM 

When you’re calling over war-busy lines, the 
Long Distance operator may ask you to "please 
limit your call to 5 minutesThat’s to help 
more calls get through during rush periods • 











n6 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


Another suggestion for getting across to the people 
in simple and understandable form the necessity 
for the American way of private initiative and en¬ 
terprise, is this: 


Beech-Nut Foods are a product of America. Only in 
this country, where men are free and encouraged to 
use initiative, and to take risks in the hope of success, 
has it been possible to develop so many of those things 
which have contributed to the high standards of living, 
of conveniences and luxuries which we enjoy. 




I’ve certainly improved ! It’s noi 

what I wear but what I eat that makes me beauti 
ful. I eat Beech-Nut. 


Fruits and vegetables in shiny glass jars taste just 
delicious. And Fve been told that Beech-Nut, 
furthermore, retains the natural food values in high 
degree. To put it simply, Beech-Nut* gives you 
what you need to grow on. 


STRAINED FOODS. Spinach, Squash, Car¬ 
rots, Green Beans, Beets, Prunes, Apple 
Sauce, Vegetable Soup, Liver Soup, Vege¬ 
tables & Beef with Rice & Barley, Vege¬ 
tables & Lamb with Rice. 

CHOPPED FOODS. Vegetables & Lamb 
with Rice, Spinach, Carrots, Green Beans, 
Prunes, Beets, Vegetable Soup, Liver Soup. 

YOUR BABY can progress from Strained 
to Chopped Foods almost without 
realizing it, because most of the Strained 
Foods are also available in the form of 
Chopped Foods. 







Certain advertisers have already adopted 
some of these suggestions and developed them 
to fit their specific copy. Many other sugges¬ 
tions can be developed, if the advertiser is 
aware of the points which need to be covered 
and how they should be handled so as to get 
acceptance on the part of the worker-readers. 
The pages of this book should furnish ample 
material. As one who has spent a great deal of 
time in studying this problem, the writer will 
be glad to be of assistance to any advertiser or 
advertising agency which feels he might be of 
help. 


118 


XX 


CALL TO ACTION 

During the course of a recent address by the writer at a con¬ 
ference sponsored by the National Association of Manufacturers, 
one of the audience asked me how he should handle the situa¬ 
tion and what he should tell his men when he could tell them 
nothing about reconversion and post-war plans. He went on to 
say that it was quite likely that the negotiations for completing 
and cleaning up his war contracts would take a considerable time 
and might even get into court. He therefore felt it was impos¬ 
sible to give his workers any information whatever and asked 
what he would do in such a case. 

I replied that I could make no attempt to tell every individual 
manufacturer exactly how to handle all of his own individual 
problems. Every situation has its own particular aspects. How¬ 
ever, the answer to that question is a very simple one. Why not 
tell the men the simple truth? If it is the truth that it is impos¬ 
sible to give them any assurance or information on that ques¬ 
tion, why not tell them frankly why it is impossible to give them 
that information? 

That illustrates what it has been the purpose of this book to 
point out. That is, the necessity of straightforward simplicity in 
dealing with the workers. Frankness may be another word for it. 

Where that is being done the results prove that it is not only 
sound, but it is the only sound way. 

It is on that simple thesis that this book has been written to 
answer the question raised by so many heads of industry as to 
what shall be done about it. None of the proposals made in this 
book are complex or difficult providing management has a real 
desire to accomplish the purposes indicated. And management 
may well bear in mind that if it does not give frank understand- 

119 


120 


WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT 


ing and information to the workers, there are serious conse¬ 
quences ahead. 

One of the important men in national activities among indus¬ 
try recently made the statement that such a program as has been 
outlined in this book would take fifty years, that it could be done 
only very slowly and over a long period of time. 

The writer’s reply was that that is untrue. And if manage¬ 
ment has that attitude they might as well face the fact that within 
five years they will be in a situation where they will no longer 
have the opportunity to accomplish these objectives. 

Some of the reactionary managements are reluctant to under¬ 
take such programs because they are so contrary to the so-called 
‘good old days,’ when management ran the show the way it 
wanted and paid no attention to the attitudes of the workers. 

Those days have gone and they will never return. The pen¬ 
dulum has swung so far that the workers will dominate and run 
our national policies. The danger which faces management is 
that if it does not quickly undertake such a program as outlined 
in this book it will be dominated, with the approval of the work¬ 
ers, by bureaucracy and governmental control. 

The program outlined in this book is simple and practical. 
More important than that, it is based upon knowledge of what 
is in the minds of the workers in industry, of what they want. 
Again let it be emphasized that management must try to under¬ 
stand the workers. It cannot give understanding to them unless 
it understands them. That is the weakest spot in management’s 
armor. It so often does not understand the workers and does 
not know how to talk to them. The exceptions to this statement 
make the majority cases stand out in black relief. 

If management will carry out all of the facets of a program of 
this sort, based upon understanding of the workers and desire 
to give them understanding and information, they will find that 


CALL TO ACTION 


12 


the workers will prove a dynamic partner. The workers will sup¬ 
port our productive system because they believe in it. 

With that kind of confidence, the workers will buy the prod¬ 
ucts of industry and services and spend their money. Only if the 
workers do that can the circuit and flow of money be kept open 
from buying through sales, through production, to employment, 
and then again to buying. 

That is the job which faces management. It is none too early 
to undertake it. In fact, it is almost not early enough. 


























































4 


9 









r' 





































































